Summary of Plutonium-238 Production Alternatives Analysis Final Report

James Werner ; Wade E. Bickford ; David B. Lord ; Chadwick D. Barklay

关键词: NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems;    Alternatives Analysis;    NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense;    Plutonium-238;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1091349
RP-ID  :  INL/EXT-13-28846
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1091349

学科分类：核能源与工程

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

The Team implemented a two-phase evaluation process. During the first phase, a wide variety of past and new candidate facilities and processing methods were assessed against the criteria established by DOE for this assessment. Any system or system element selected for consideration as an alternative within the project to reestablish domestic production of Pu-238 must meet the following minimum criteria: Any required source material must be readily available in the United States, without requiring the development of reprocessing technologies or investments in systems to separate material from identified sources. It must be cost, schedule, and risk competitive with existing baseline technology. Any identified facilities required to support the concept must be available to the program for the entire project life cycle (notionally 35 years, unless the concept is so novel as to require a shorter duration). It must present a solution that can generate at least 1.5 Kg of Pu-238 oxide per year, for at least 35 years. It must present a low-risk, near-term solution to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration???s urgent mission need. DOE has implemented this requirement by eliminating from project consideration any alternative with key technologies at less than Technology Readiness Level 5. The Team evaluated the options meeting these criteria using a more detailed assessment of the reasonable facility variations and compared them to the preferred option, which consists of target irradiation at the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) and the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), target fabrication and chemical separations processing at the ORNL Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, and neptunium 237 storage at the Materials and Fuels Complex at INL. This preferred option is consistent with the Records of Decision from the earlier National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation