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STATEMENT OF F. CHARLES GILBERT

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee.

It is a pleasure to

discuss with you the Department of Energy's FY 1985 Nuclear Materials program. This program is made up of two major

components, materials production and defense waste management.

(Chart 1) The Nuclear Materials' FY 1985 request for $2.62 billion in budget authority includes $1.86 billion for Nuclear Materials Production and $753 million for Defense Waste and Byproducts Management. We are also requesting an FY 1984 supplemental appropriation of $86 million for Materials Production to alleviate security and environmental concerns and to

ensure the availability of highly enriched uranium to meet weapons requirements.

NUCLEAR MATERIALS PRODUCTION REQUIREMENTS

(Chart 2) The Nuclear Materials Production program is responsible for producing nuclear materials for use in military, Government research and development, and civilian programs that use radioisotopes for research, commercial, and medical applications. Of these, the primary objective is providing special nuclear materials for national defense requirements.

DEFENSE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE

(Chart 3) The facilities involved in the production of special nuclear materials are located at six major sites. Oak Ridge, Fernald, and Ashtabula provide uranium of proper enrichment levels to act 26 feed for production reactors. Savannah River and Richland fabricate these feed materials into fuel or targets. The Savannah River reactors produce both plutonium and tritium.

The N Reactor

at Richland produces weapon-grade plutonium. These sites then process the irradiated fuels to recover plutonium, tritium, and other valuable materials and by products. Idaho receives, stores,

and processes fuels from Navy propulsion, research, and test

reactors to recover residual enriched uranium primarily for use as

fuel for the Savannah River reactors.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS STOCKPILE

(Chart 4) The Nuclear Materials Production budget is driven by the requirements for tritium, plutonium, and enriched uranium set forth in the Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Memorandum approved annually by the President. The FY 1984 Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Memorandum, signed by the President on February 16, 1984, contains stockpile requirements projected through FY 1999.

The total number of weapons has decreased from a high

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in 1967 to a low [Deleted] in 1982 and is projected to return to

a level of

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Older weapons are continuously being retired and replaced with newer, safer, and You will note that this long-range projection

smaller weapons.

assumes retirement [Deleted] of the current older weapons [Deleted] Most of the nuclear material for the modernized

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weapons comes from these retired weapons. However, the modest increase in the total number of weapons, along with the increase in plutonium and tritium required per weapon, drives the demand for these materials.

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(Chart 6) We have just looked at the number of weapons included

in the current stockpile projections.

corresponding material requirements.

Now we can look at the

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Most of

the nuclear materials required for building new warheads are obtained by reclaiming and recycling existing materials from retired weapons, returned by the Department of Defense to the Department of Energy. Material requirements which cannot be met from Department of Defense returns or existing inventories must be satisfied by new production.

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Allow me to spend just a minute or two explaining how we expect

to fill this demand.

(Chart 7) Here we have the projected annual production rates
by source for plutonium equivalent through FY 1999. The
increase in production is due largely to our FY 1981 production
initiatives--efforts this committee has strongly supported.

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new initiatives responsible for the future rise in production are plutonium blending, higher productivity Mark-15 reactor cores, the facilities restoration program, conversion of the N Reactor to weapon-grade plutonium production, and the projected startup of a special isotope separation facility.

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(Chart 8)

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The weapons program has operated within the

existing inventory of enriched uranium for the last 20 years

by recycling material from retired warheads.

Although recycling

continues, a need for new quantities of highly enriched uranium is projected, starting about FY 1988.

FY 1984 SUPPLEMENTAL REQUEST

We are

(Chart 9) Before I specifically discuss the FY 1985 budget, I would like to describe our need for additional FY 1984 funding. requesting a supplemental budget of $85,800,000 to meet material production, security, and environmental requirements that have risen subsequent to establishment of our current FY 1984 budget. URANIUM SUPPLY

(Chart 10) First, $4,900,000 is required to reactivate the existing dry chemistry facility at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant. This facility converts highly enriched gaseous uranium hexafluoride to solid uranium tetrafluoride, a form that is needed to make uranium metal. The existing facility was shut down in 1964 because projections then indicated that our highly enriched

uranium inventory was sufficient for many years. The facility

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Highly enriched uranium metal is

used directly as a component of nuclear weapons and as fuel for the Savannah River reactors. It is also used in the Department's research and test reactors.

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it is essential that the Oak Ridge dry chemistry facility be operational in early FY 1988.

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SECURITY

(Chart 11)

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Savannah River's role as the United States primary producer of tritium and plutonium for weapons has been receiving increased media and public attention, increasing the risk of terrorist acts. We have experienced several minor demonstrations there during the past year. As a result, we have taken a comprehensive look at the security measures at Savannah River. The Department's Office of Safeguards and Security, the Office of the Inspector General, and the Savannah River Office of Safeguards and Security have conducted assessments of Savanah River's security

measures.

measu

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(Chart 12)

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVITIES

Finally, our supplemental request provides $37,000,000 to initiate or accelerate several environmental activities

needed to bring the Savannah River Plant into compliance with appropriate State and Federal environmental regulations. Savannah River was recently granted a new national pollutant discharge elimination system permit to allow continued operation of the three currently operating reactors. A consent order provides a delay in full compliance until thermal mitigation measures can be put in place. Negotiations for the new permit were difficult since the point of compliance for reactor thermal discharge must now be where thermal effluents enter

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the site streams rather than where the site streams enter the Savannah River as previously required. The new permit places even more stringent requirements on plant operations.

Failure to proceed to bring the Savannah River Plant into compliance could result in legal action by the State of South Carolina and environmental organizations, which could potentially impact many operations at the Savannah River Plant.

The requested funding will be used to begin decommissioning the fuel fabrication area seepage basin that has contaminated

the groundwater in the vicinity of the facility with chlorocarbon degreasing chemicals; accelerate construction of facilities to control hazardous liquid effluents; and treat and dispose of other hazardous wastes generated onsite.

This completes my discussion of the supplemental budget

request necessary to support planned additional FY 1984 production, security, and environmental activities.

FY 1985 BUDGET REQUEST

(Chart 13) As I mentioned earlier, we are requesting $1.86 billion in FY 1985 for support of the Materials Production program.

Of this amount, $1.42 billion is needed for continuing base activities, production activities, $327 million for production initiatives, and $121 million for highly enriched uranium for the nuclear Navy.

BASE ACTIVITIES

(Chart 14) Meeting program objectives requires operation of four Savannah River reactors, including the L Reactor; the Richland N Reactor; four chemical processing plants; reactor fuel fabrication facilities; utilities; and other site support

facilities. The base program also supports processing of naval and research and development reactor spent fuels and nonspecification nuclear materials to supplement new production. Considerable funding is required for maintenance and equipment replacement, and for security and environmental improvements.

The FY 1985 budget supports the first full year of operation of the PUREX fuel processing plant and supporting facilities at

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