Uranium Modernization And Production Science

As part of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration modernization effort, Y-12 is establishing modern enriched and depleted uranium facilities over the next 5-20 years. The Uranium Processing Facility, scheduled to be completed in 2025, will be Y-12’sthe first modern nuclear facility in 2025, to come online and replace operations that are currently conducted in a Manhattan Project-era facility. and is planned to phase in additional operations over the next two to three decades. Likewise, initial concepts for depleted uranium manufacturing/production facilities are being considered to replace ca. 1950 era facilities. As part of these modernization efforts, significant effort is being placed on establishing operations that provide improvements in worker and environmental safety, material control and accountability, and production efficiencies - during the conceptual design and throughout the design/build process. Multi-scale modeling and simulation (to understand the concept-of-operations within a modern facility and the impact of new technologies) has been key to projecting the capabilities and capacities in those facilities. In addition, over the past 5-10 years, NNSA has refined technology maturation approaches to more effectively insert new technologies into the design/build process and better realize the potential impact of these technologies on the production and manufacturing capabilities - reducing schedule and cost risks associated with large construction projects. This presentation will discuss, in general terms, the application of modern production science methods and technology maturation to support both conceptual and preliminary designs for future nuclear facilities.