TRM-Transportation Of Irradiated Liquid Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU)

In March 2012, the governments of Canada and the United States (U.S.) committed to work cooperatively to repatriate US Origin spent highly-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel from Canada to the U.S. From 1986 until 2003 US-origin HEU fuel elements and targets were sent to Canada for use in the production of medical isotopes at the Chalk River Laboratories operated by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL). CNL was one of the world’s largest producers of medical isotopes that are used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. The HEU targets were irradiated for approximately 7 days in a research reactor and then dissolved in a nitric acid solution in order to separate out the Mo-99 isotope. About 6,000 gallons of highly enriched liquid uranyl nitrate (HEUNL) fissile target residue material (TRM), was left after the Mo-99 was separated by dissolution. The TRM was transferred to a double-walled stainless-steel vessel known as the fissile solution storage tank (FISST) at the CNL facility. The TRM was not waste, it was a valuable product that could be recycled at Savannah River Site (SRS). It was planned to be transported to and processed through the SRS’s H-Canyon (HCAN), the only commercial scale chemical separations facility in North America. This paper will focus on the planning and execution of the transportation aspect of the TRM shipping campaign. The key to the success of the transportation campaign was the early planning and partnership NNSA established with its Canadian partners, the shipping contractor, Tribal Nations, and multiple U.S. federal and state agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the IAEA to ensure the material was transported safely and securely.