Y-12 CENTRAL SCRAP MANAGEMENT OFFICE FOR URANIUM (CSMO) PROCESS

The Y-12 Central Scrap Management Office (CSMO) serves as the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) repository for unirradiated uranium and provides technical assistance to DOE customers in the disposition of scrap uranium. Since it was established in 1971, CSMO provides centralized leadership and management of unirradiated enriched uranium (EU) scrap recovery, storage, and disposition services for DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) programs. Scrap is defined as unirradiated material, not useable in its existing form, that requires chemical recovery and/or treatment to render it useful and which can be recovered safely and in a cost- effective manner. Today, while EU remains the primary focus, CSMO may also consider other nuclear materials for which the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12) serves as the custodian and steward, including lithium, depleted uranium, normal uranium, deuterium, and heavy water. CSMO provides technical assistance to DOE customers, manages CSMO receipts and shipments at Y-12, and acts as the liaison between customers and Y-12, and/or other DOE or commercial receipt and processing facilities. In addition to scrap management responsibilities, the CSMO is responsible for evaluating material disposition via the Programmatic Value Determination (PVD) process, commonly used for materials proposed for waste disposal. This dual role of evaluating scrap and PVDs facilitates identifying the most appropriate disposition path for the material. The CSMO process is an enterprise-wide activity that involves the shipping facility, the shipper’s DOE/NNSA site office (if such exists), Y-12, and/or other receiving and processing facility.