Page 5 - SRNS_2015_Annual_Report

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H Canyon starts Head End Cycle

SRNS resumed the Head End process to continue
the spent fuel processing campaign in H Canyon. The
Head End takes dissolved spent fuel and begins the
purification process, removing impurities from high
enriched uranium. This restart required an extensive
Readiness Assessment, as this portion of the Canyon
had not been used in more than a year.

Multi-year Spent Fuel Campaign 335

In FY 2015, SRNS began a multi-year campaign to trailers of low-enriched uranium
process aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuel (SNF).
Known as Material Test Reactor SNF, this spent have been sent to the Tennessee Valley Authority
fuel is safely stored in L Basin in wet storage and since March 2003. That’s enough to power:
then transferred to H Canyon, where it undergoes a
chemical process that separates the uranium and all S.C. all U.S.
downblends the materials into low-enriched uranium, a homes for homes for
form undesirable for use in nuclear weapons. The end-
product will be available for use in commercial power 8.5 47
reactors, such as those operated by the Tennessee
Valley Authority to generate electricity. years days

SRS goes to Pluto H Canyon turns 60

HB Line and H Canyon The H Canyon Facility celebrated 60 years
facilities processed of service to the United States in 2015.
and produced the H Canyon first produced nuclear materials
plutonium-238 oxide used to power the in support of our nation’s defense weapons
NASA New Horizons space probe (pictured programs. Now, the nation’s only operating
above), which completed a historic flyby in production-scale shielded chemical
2015. The probe provided NASA with the separations facility dispositions and stabilizes
first-ever close-up views of Pluto. nuclear materials and spent nuclear fuel
from legacy cleanup, as well as foreign and
domestic research reactors. On hand for the
event were (from left) Department of Energy
(DOE)-Savannah River Manager Jack Craig,
SRNS President and CEO Carol Johnson and
U.S. Congressman Joe Wilson.

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