U.S. Department of Energy’s Management of Tritium and Enriched Uranium

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) is responsible for national missions that require a reliable supply of Enriched Uranium (EU) to meet our defense and non-defense missions. Most NNSA requirements are currently supplied from the US HEU stockpile. To meet these requirements the Department is repurposing or down-blending HEU that was declared excess to defense needs by the President in 1994 and 2005. A particularly pressing defense mission need is for tritium, which is currently produced by irradiating tritium-producing burnable absorber rods in a commercial light-water reactor. U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy and international agreements for peaceful uses of nuclear materials require that nuclear weapons material be produced using resources, technologies, production equipment, and infrastructure that are free of peaceful use restrictions. These restrictions may be derived from foreign-origin uranium, processing equipment, or technologies; or from U.S. Government policy. In keeping with this principle, each LEU fuel core loaded into a tritium production reactor must consist entirely of LEU that is both free from foreign peaceful- use obligations and unencumbered by U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy restrictions. The existing supply of unobligated LEU fuel for tritium production will be expended by ~2027. However, DOE/NNSA has evaluated multiple options and identified a series of actions that could extend the unobligated LEU fuel need date for tritium production from 2027 to 2038-2041. NNSA has also assessed other methods and technologies to produce tritium. This paper summarizes NNSA plans and options for managing tritium and EU resources to satisfy U.S. national security demand; and offers analyses of demand and supply scenarios, material use restrictions, production capabilities, and production technologies needed to meet future demand.