Depleted Uranium Management
Since 1991 Argonne's Environmental Science Division (EVS) has been part of the concentrated effort to evaluate alternative strategies for the management and disposition of the Department of Energy (DOE) inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which currently amounts to approximately 704,000 metric tons. This material is being stored in approximately 58,000 large steel cylinders located at sites near Paducah, KY; Portsmouth, OH; and Oak Ridge, TN. For various reasons, including concern about the condition of the cylinders (many of them showed evidence of external corrosion), DOE initiated in the early 1990s the concentrated study evaluating alternative strategies with EVS providing technical analysis of the environmental and engineering issues. Starting in 1994, EVS involvement increased with participation in the newly established DOE Depleted UF6 Management Program. Staff from EVS were members of the program's Planning and Review Committee. EVS further contributed to the program by preparing a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS), a web site for public outreach, and several computerized management tools. EVS and other ANL divisions also provided support to the program in the areas of regulatory analysis, risk analysis, and engineering and cost analysis. EVS technical support in many of these areas is continuing. Following the publication of the final PEIS in April 1999 and the issuance of the Record of Decision (ROD) in August 1999, EVS continued to support DOE in implementing the decision made in the ROD. In particular, EVS helped in the selection of a contractor to design, build and operate two conversions plants at Paducah and Portsmouth to convert DOE's inventory of depleted UF6 to depleted uranium oxide (primarily U3O8). EVS staff with help from another Argonne division also prepared two site-specific environmental impact statements for the construction and operation of the conversion plants at Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky. Currently, EVS staff are helping the DOE Portsmouth Paducah Project Office with outstanding issues related to the National Environmental Policy Act concerning the management of the depleted uranium oxide conversion product. EVS also continues to maintain the Depleted UF6 Management Information Network website, which gets heavy public use for its educational content.
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