It costs money to process uranium
Yep, and it's not clear right now whether the folks at Y-12 are going to have enough taxpayer dollars to run the "oxide conversion" facility beyond the end of this month.
The Oak Ridge plant restarted the operation back in late spring for the first time in nearly two years and one of the few times in the post-Cold War era. It was a big deal. The process converts enriched uranium oxide to a compound known as "green salt" (uranium tetrafluoride), which then goes through a reduction system to produce uranium metal buttons of potential weapons use.
Although oxide conversion has been called an important part of Y-12's capabilities for processing and recycling enriched uranium, it's not clear at this point whether there'll be money in fiscal 2009 (beginning Oct. 1) to continue the work.
"We current project that we will have sufficient funding available for OCF to operate for the remainder of this (fiscal) year," Y-12 spokesman Steven Wyatt said. "However, the budget profile for FY 2009 is not fully resolved at this time and Y-12 may or may not be able to operate OCF for the full year depending on the approved budget."
Frank Munger will be covering the Dept. of Energy's Oak Ridge facilities and other things nuclear. The blog will include random thoughts and opinions, behind-the-scenes tidbits, and expanded coverage and analysis of Oak Ridge news. 