(547e) Chemical Engineering Needs and Opportunities Relevant to Nuclear Materials Processing and Nuclear Nonproliferation

Process chemistry and engineering are major components of nuclear materials processing, from production of reactor fuels and accelerator targets, to manufacture of defense-related components, to recovery and purification of industrial and medical isotopes. Chemical engineers have played critical roles in the development, deployment, and operation of nuclear materials processes. In many aspects, chemical unit operations and technologies associated with nuclear applications are not those emphasized in undergraduate and graduate chemical engineering curricula. Traditionally, the needed skills and expertise are taught in a relatively small number of university Chemical Engineering departments, resulting in most training taking place on-the-job. The lack of available training may be justified on the basis of two, likely misperceptions: (1), all nuclear chemical processes of industrial interest are thoroughly developed and adequately optimized and (2), nuclear materials processing (particularly actinide processing) is understood in sufficient detail at all levels (fundamentals to application) that further R&D is superfluous.

As concern over the climate impacts of fossil fuels has intensified, interest in power reactor alternatives to Pressurized Water Reactors and Boiling Water Reactors has increased. New concepts require nontraditional fuels, necessitating novel chemistries and new and/or enhanced technologies. Equally as important, the growing threat of state and nonstate entities with military ambitions has increased the need for personnel trained in unit operations throughout the nuclear fuel and weapon cycles to support policy makers in nonpoliferation efforts and international nuclear safeguards. With these aims in mind, the Y-12 National Security Complex is currently standing up the Uranium Production and Weaponization Testbed (UPWT) as part of the DOE-NNSA Nonproliferation Stewardship Program. This facility is being designed to operate uranium conversion, purification, and metallization processes at pilot scales in an integrated fashion. The goal of the UPWT facility is to provide on-the-job training at an actinide processing facility while providing an S&T environment capable of addressing the design challenges associated with material processing for the civilian reactor fleet and the nonproliferation questions that the DOE-NNSA and policy makers may pose.