Potential Disposition Options for Surplus US DOE Nuclear Materials in Support of
Disposition Planning

The Disposition Pathway Studies project led by Savannah River National Laboratory and supported by National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Environment, Safety, and Health, Nuclear Materials Integration Division (NA-ESH-12) seeks to identify potential disposition options for excess DOE materials in support of disposition planning to optimize the safest and most efficient disposition approaches; and progress disposition of those nuclear materials. This paper is focused on recent assessments of nuclear materials in the Department of Energy complex. A subset of the materials consists of bulk plutonium/uranium oxides as well as plutonium/uranium fabricated into unirradiated nuclear fuel components. Due to similar material characteristics between the groups, they have a potential to share common disposition strategies, and some associated challenges are presented that would need to be overcome.