BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS TO THE BENEFICIAL REUSE OF DEPLETED URANIUM

The U.S. government has accumulated approximately 700,000 tons of depleted uranium. This is the result of over 50 years of enrichment operations that produced nuclear reactor fuel and material for nuclear weapons. This depleted uranium, sometimes called “enrichment tails, ” is stored as pure uranium hexafluoride in steel pressure vessels. The U. S. Department of Energy is actively considering strategies for its long-term management. Recent federal legislation (Public Law 105-204) directs the Department to include a request for almost $400 million in it its fiscal year 2000 budget. The funds are to be used to start construction of two depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facilities. The legislation does not specify what the depleted uranium hexafluoride is to be converted to or the purpose of conversion. If the purpose is to prepare the material for disposal, $400 million is a minor part of the $3 billion to $4.5 billion required. On the other hand, conversion could instead prepare the enrichment tails for reuse by private industry. Sales of the conversion products would offset government costs for management of the material. In addition to this benefit, the feedstock would result in new