Screening of Items for National Nuclear Material Archive

The United States Department of Energy established a National Nuclear Materials Archive to identify, retain, characterize, and manage nuclear material items of historical or forensic interest. Savannah River National Laboratory screened nearly 20,000 items located at the Savannah River Site and identified 341 as potential “Items of Interest.” From earlier evaluation and nomination, fuel slugs from the Oak Ridge X-10 Reactor were the first items from SRS to be accepted into the Archive. The X-10 Reactor was the first continuously operating manmade nuclear reactor, starting up in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, and served as a prototype for materials production reactors that were built at Hanford and Savannah River.