Pit Disassembly and Conversion—Challenges and Opportunities

The Congress directed that the Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility (PDCF) be transferred from the Office of Fissile Materials Disposition to the Office of Defense Programs and to be integrated into the dismantlement program. This directed transfer presented challenges to maintaining the federal and contractor team executing the project, providing a sure and stable source of Plutonium (Pu) Oxide on schedule to support the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF), and to ensure the project team understood the culture, business processes and priorities of the receiving organization. This transfer also presented opportunities to revisit program requirements, program constraints (such as classification of information and pit types identified as sources of surplus plutonium), integration into established dismantlement planning and activities, and alternatives for producing Pu Oxide that may have emerged since the project was initially scoped. These alternatives included potential integration with a project to convert non-pit plutonium into Pu Oxide destined for MFFF and the chemical processing facility, H-Canyon, and to consider inserting the production technology into existing nuclear space at the Savannah River Site that had not initially been considered available. This presentation will describe the major elements of the functional transfer, the analysis of issues and opportunities by the Office of Defense Programs and other organizations, and the emerging partnership between the Office of Defense Programs, the Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, and the Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management to cost effectively produce Pu Oxide needed by MFFF. It will conclude with a brief summary of the Defense Programs plan for providing Pu Oxide for MFFF through pit disassembly and conversion.