The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration intends to partner with the Tennessee Valley Authority to down-blend highly-enriched uranium and support national security.The effort would allow for the production of tritium, which serves as an important component of the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile, DOE said Thursday.
The partnership follows Secretary of Energy Rick Perry’s objective to allow NNSA’s continued transfers of enriched uranium from the department’s stock.
NNSA’s unobligated HEU would undergo down-blending into low-enriched uranium to address the needs of defense missions, given the lack of enriched uranium availability in the market.
The effort is part of NNSA’s plan to allocate a source of unobligated enriched uranium for the next seven years, while TVA will manage materials and provide logistics for storage through 2040.
