Department of Energy FY 2012 Congressional ... - The FIRE Place

Congressional Items of Interest: Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation programs at ORNL under the
International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation Program and Global Threat Reduction
Initiative support the Administration efforts to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world
within four years.
Major Changes or Shifts: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is the lead for the contracts with
Russia for the purposes of Russian plutonium disposition. In FY2011, the Fissile Materials Disposition
program requested $100 million for the Russian Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program, as the first
installment towards a pledge of $400 million that the U.S. Government agreed to for this program in
Russia. Further significant funding requests are subject to the establishment of implementation
milestones for the amended Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement objectives. The
program anticipates balances from the FY 2011 funds to be available in FY 2012.
INTRODUCTION:
Site Description
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is not a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
managed site. The Office of Science is the site landlord for the Department of Energy. However,
significant NNSA work is conducted at the site.
ACTIVITIES:
Site Stewardship
In the Site Stewardship program, Nuclear Materials Integration activities consist of the development of
project plans for disposition of irradiated Mk-42 targets located at ORNL, performing analytical studies,
and providing technical support for life-cycle management of nuclear materials, such as americium,
californium and curium.
Nonproliferation Verification Research and Development
Oak Ridge supports the Nonproliferation and Verification R&D program with: research to address the
threat from nuclear weapons and radiological dispersal devices; providing leading-edge research into
candidate materials, which could replace existing nuclear detectors used for gamma spectroscopy and
neutron detection; nuclear material analysis efforts; research efforts to better understand and detect
uranium enrichment operations and to understand associated effluents associated with those processes.
Nonproliferation and International Security (NIS)
In FY 2012, the NIS program at ORNL will continue to support safeguards technology and concept
development; license and export request review activities, and export control cooperation with
international partners. The ORNL supports the development of nuclear transparency measures. The
facility also provides expertise on various arms control and nonproliferation agreements and treaties.
The ORNL supports USG efforts to prepare for denuclearization and verification efforts in North Korea
and other proliferating countries. Also, ORNL provides technical support to the NGSI related to
safeguards and verification measures and uranium enrichment processing facilities. In addition, ORNL
supports licensing and interdiction operations through reviews of export controlled items, and analytical
tools and technical references for use in developing recommendations on U.S. export license
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Page 551
FY 2012 Congressional Budget