Savannah River Site could receive more Japanese nuclear fuel

Matthew Christian, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·3 min read

Oct. 5—The Savannah River Site could be getting more highly enriched uranium from Japan.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announced last week that they were committed to converting the Kindai University Teaching and Research Reactor from highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium fuel and to return all highly enriched uranium to the United States for downblending or another disposition.

Uranium enrichment involves increasing the percentage of uranium-235 relative to the percentage of the far more naturally abundant uranium-238 in the uranium used for nuclear fuel. Highly enriched uranium contains greater than 20% uranium-235.

Kindai University is a private university located in Higashiosaka, which is a city in Osaka prefecture. It is home to the first private nuclear reactor facilities in Japan.

"This new agreement to convert UTR-KINKI—Japan's last highly enriched uranium-fueled research reactor—and to remove its highly enriched uranium is the latest accomplishment in a remarkable year of U.S.-Japan nonproliferation milestones," NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said during a virtual signing ceremony. "We appreciate our close bilateral relationship with Japan and look forward to announcing the completion of this latest commitment in the coming years."

The Savannah River Site has previously received three shipments of nuclear fuel from Japan for downblending.

In August, the National Nuclear Security Administration announced that all highly enriched uranium from the Kyoto University Critical Assembly had been removed and sent to the Savannah River Site and the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge for downblending.

In May, President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that over 30 kilograms of highly enriched uranium had been moved from three Japanese sites to the Savannah River Site and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for downblending into low enriched uranium.

The uranium was removed from the Yayoi Research Reactor at the University of Tokyo, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency's Deuterium Critical Assembly and Japan Atomic Energy Agency's Japan Research Reactor 4 as part of a commitment announced at a 2018 U.S.-Japan Bilateral Commission on Civil Nuclear Cooperation meeting in Tokyo.

In 2016, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency sent plutonium to the Savannah River Site. Originally, it was planned to move the material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico; however, in 2019, the NNSA decided to dissolve the plutonium in H Canyon at SRS.

The Office of Environmental Management announced in April that the Fast Critical Assembly was online and ready to dispose of the plutonium.

The work with Japan is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration's work to partner with other countries and international institutions to eliminate the need for, presence of and production of weapons grade nuclear material.

To date, the administration's Office of Material Management and Minimization has converted or shut down 108 reactors and removed or confirmed the disposition of nearly 7,275 kilograms of weapons-usable nuclear material — enough for approximately 325 nuclear weapons.