Uranium Management - Preservation of a National Asset

The Uranium Management Group (UMG) was established at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Oak Ridge Operations in 1999 as a mechanism to expedite the de-inventory of surplus uranium from the Fernald Environmental Management Project site. This successful initial venture has broadened into providing uranium material de-inventory and consolidation support to the Hanford site as well as retrieving uranium materials that the Department had previously provided to universities under the loan/lease program. As of December 31, 2001, ∼ 4,300 metric tons of uranium (MTU) have been consolidated into a more cost effective interim storage location at the Portsmouth site near Piketon, OH. The UMG continues to uphold its corporate support mission by promoting the Nuclear Materials Stewardship Initiative (NMSI) and the twenty-five (25) action items of the Integrated Nuclear Materials Management Plan (1). Before additional consolidation efforts may commence to remove excess inventory from Environmental Management closure sites and universities, a Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) must be completed. Two (2) noteworthy efforts currently being pursued involve the investigation of re-use opportunities for surplus uranium materials and the recovery of usable uranium from the shutdown Portsmouth cascade. In summary, the UMG is available as a DOE complex-wide technical resource to promote the responsible management of surplus uranium