Stewarding the United States’ Nonproliferation Competencies in Aqueous Processing

The United States’ National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation has recently initiated a new program, the Nonproliferation Stewardship Program (NSP). NSP’s objective is to ensure that the nation’s competencies in nonproliferation are maintained by cultivating a robust and enduring workforce of experts to meet present and future needs. A key component of NSP involves the use of modern test beds that provide handson experiences to develop expertise. One line of effort within this program addresses technical expertise in aqueous processing of spent nuclear fuel and associated nonproliferation applications under a project called Athena. As part of the Athena project, a new test bed called Beartooth is being developed and utilized where Plutonium Uranium Reduction Extraction (PUREX)-type unit operations in a glovebox environment can be conducted using Special Nuclear Material (SNM). Beartooth is designed to be flexible regarding flowsheet implementation, thereby allowing a variety of chemical separation processes relevant to the nuclear fuel cycle to be studied. This paper will provide a high-level overview of the NSP as well as the Athena project (which includes Idaho National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Savannah River National Laboratory, and Argonne National Laboratory). The Beartooth testbed will be described in context of the Athena science and technology plan, application of advanced sensors, digital engineering, digital twin, and explainable machine learning.