Y-12 plant lauded for uranium conversion
July 14, 2006

WASHINGTON - Oak Ridge's Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and its management contractor won praise Thursday from federal officials for their role in helping to convert weapons-grade uranium into enough nuclear power plant fuel to potentially provide electricity for all U.S. households for 81 days.

Linton Brooks, administrator of the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, said the processing of 50 metric tons of highly enriched uranium, formerly stored in a secured area at Y-12, eliminated the equivalent of 800 nuclear warheads and improved global security.

BWXT Y-12, the manager of Y-12, also manages the Lynchburg, Va., plant that successfully down-blended the weapons-grade uranium to a low level used as fuel in nuclear power plants.

Separately, Brooks credited the Tennessee Valley Authority for working with a contractor in Erwin, Tenn., to process 39 metric tons of highly enriched uranium to make it usable at TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama. The original uranium material did not meet the specifications of commercial nuclear plants.

TVA spokesman John Moulton said the agency is achieving a net savings of about $25 million every two years on fuel costs compared to regular prices in the commercial market. The conversion process produced a 10-year supply of cheaper fuel for two Browns Ferry units, he said.

John Fees, president and chief operating officer at BWXT, said it is wise energy policy for the country to produce its own fuel for nuclear power plants.

"It would be a shame ... where we would go from dependency on foreign oil to dependency on foreign uranium," Fees said.

Y-12 stored the weapons-grade uranium from 1999 to 2005, Fees said. DOE also has plans to dilute other highly enriched uranium but has not made a decision on the timing, Fees said.

Many of the country's utilities are using fuel produced from former nuclear weapons, said John Welch, president of USEC Inc., a global energy company supplying fuel for nuclear power plants.

Brooks said the conversion milestone is worth wide public notice and celebration.

One way to consider the news, he said, is that "one in 10 light bulbs in the United States is being powered by (former) Cold War atom bombs. That's what the president and the administration are trying to do - while preserving our security - to convert this large Cold War legacy to peaceful uses."

His one-tenth ratio comes from the fact that 20 percent of U.S. power generated is from nuclear plants, and half of their fuel is coming from dismantled nuclear warheads.

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, whose district includes Oak Ridge, released a statement saying the conversion program is proving how dangerous stockpiles of weapons "can be transformed into an economical benefit to society."

Welch credited BWXT with achieving a safe, effective process for the weapons-grade fuel.

"It is no simple task to down-blend this," Welch said. "There is an awful lot of strict discipline, quality control that goes into that process. ... Certainly we're all proud to have been involved in the program."