(418b) Grand Challenges in Nuclear Nonproliferation Related to Irradiated Fuel Processing

The expertise relied on to execute the United State’s nuclear nonproliferation mission was developed primarily through experience in operating industrial scale facilities within the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. However, such facilities used to process irradiated fuel for recovering plutonium ceased operations at the end of the Cold War. Hence, over the last 35 years this first-hand knowledge of nuclear materials processing has atrophied, with most workers from that era no longer available to address nuclear nonproliferation challenges. This issue has become a major concern for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), leading to the establishment of the Nonproliferation Stewardship Program, and in particular Project Athena, which is specifically directed at processing of irradiated fuel. Athena is a multi-laboratory effort that seeks to reinvigorate and grow U.S. expertise in the recovery of nuclear materials from irradiated fuels and targets, with a focus on the nuclear nonproliferation mission. Given that the U.S. no longer processes irradiated fuel, three science and technology grand challenges have been established by Project Athena which revolve around process scalability, process vulnerability, and process maturation. This presentation will discuss the nature of these grand challenges.