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Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Latest News
Take steps on SNF and HLW disposal
Matt Bowen
With a new administration and Congress, it is time once again to ponder what will happen—if anything—on U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste management policy over the next few years. One element of the forthcoming discussion seems clear: The executive and legislative branches are eager to talk about recycling commercial SNF. Whatever the merits of doing so, it does not obviate the need for one or more facilities for disposal of remaining long-lived radionuclides. For that reason, making progress on U.S. disposal capabilities remains urgent, lest the associated radionuclide inventories simply be left for future generations to deal with.
In March, Rick Perry, who was secretary of energy during President Trump’s first administration, observed that during his tenure at the Department of Energy it became clear to him that any plan to move SNF “required some practical consent of the receiving state and local community.”1
C. Saville, G. Ascione, S. Elwood, A. Nagy, S. Raftopoulos, R. Rossmassler, J. Stencel, D. Voorhees, C. Tilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 1078-1082
Analysis and Accountancy | Proceedings of the Fifth Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology In Fission, Fusion, and Isotopic Applications Belgirate, Italy May 28-June 3, 1995 | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30550
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requires control and accountability of nuclear materials for all DOE-owned nuclear materials at licensed and licensed-exempt facilities. Through a series of DOE orders (5633. 3 and associated referenced series), the DOE has set forth minimum requirements and procedures for control and accountability of nuclear materials. The TFTR has been in deuterium-tritium (D-T) operations since November 1993 utilizing DOE-owned tritium for fueling the plasma reaction. As a result of the current D-T experiments at TFTR, 30 grams of tritium have been shipped to PPPL, tracked through the tritium storage and delivery systems, processed as scrap or waste, and shipped back to other DOE-owned facilities for disposal or reprocessing. Under the guidance of the DOE control and accountability orders, PPPL is required to implement and maintain a program that includes the establishment of nuclear material balance areas, material surveillance, calibration and verification of measurement devices, graded safeguards for protection of tritium inventories, computerized tracking of measurement control points, material balance reports, shipper/receiver evaluations, and extensive DOE reporting requirements. This paper discusses the program (PPPL Material Control and Accountability Plan) that has been implemented to track DOE-owned tritium and all other accountable source material. Specifically, this paper details the methods used to measure tritium in various systems at TFTR, resolve inventory differences, perform inventory by difference inside the Tokamak, process and measure plasma exhaust and other effluent gas streams, process, measure and ship scrap or waste tritium on molecular sieve beds, and detail the organizational structure of the Material Control and Accountability (MC&A) group. In addition, this paper describes a Unix™ based computerized software system developed at PPPL to account for all tritium movements throughout the facility.