RE: How DU was used in the production of Pu

[Rodney Bauman <RBauman@wssrap.com>]

>As the U-235 was depleted, the fuel was raised
>back up to the appropriate enrichment by BLENDING
>with more highly enriched uranium.  It was not done
>by sending back through the GDP facilities.
>"Sweetner" material, of a much higher enrichment level,
>was used to restore it to fuel grade enrichment.

James - thanks for the info.

Although blending did occur for Hanford's (and SRP's) production purposes, I
believe that most of the depleted uranium stockpile being used for the DoD's
purposes ultimately originated as DUF6 tails at the GDPs (a good portion of
it was funneled through the Fernald site).  Starting in 1952, the GDPs
(mostly Paducah) received "recycled" uranium from Hanford in the form of
UO3.  The UO3 was converted to UF6 and fed into the cascades to supplement
the natural feed stream.  The program was so efficient that during FY 1973,
approx. 65% of Paducah's cascade feed was of "recycled" origin.

BTW, the DoE's Recycled Uranium Mass Balance Project is still in progress.
I suppose that some reports will be published very soon.

Rodney Bauman, CHP, RRPT
rbauman@wssrap.com
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