September 26, 2016

H-Canyon Processing at the Savannah River Site

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (Environmental Management) has management responsibility for the safe operations of the H Canyon plant at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina.  H Canyon, built in the 1950s to support the nuclear weapons program, is currently used to process nuclear materials, including aluminum-clad domestic and foreign research reactor spent nuclear fuel.  The recovered enriched uranium is then down blended into low enriched uranium for eventual use in commercial power reactors.  The HB-Line facility, built atop the canyon in the 1980s to produce plutonium as a power source for deep space exploration, is now used to convert excess plutonium into an oxide for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility or for final disposition.  H-Canyon is the nation’s only hardened nuclear chemical separations plant still in operation, and HB-Line is the only processing facility of its kind within the Department.  To ensure that H Canyon remains available for fissile materials disposition, Congress required that the Department continue H Canyon operations, maintain a high state of readiness, and provide the associated necessary technical staff.

During our audit, we found that the Department had not developed a long-term strategy to use H Canyon to support multiple programmatic missions.  While Environmental Management manages the operation of the H Canyon complex, the facilities are considered resources for other program offices such as the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Office of Science, and the Office of Nuclear Energy (Nuclear Energy).  However, we were informed by Environmental Management officials at the Headquarters and site level that there was no overall Department strategy for H Canyon operations.  A Headquarters Environmental Management official stated that this was because the program offices that drive their respective missions continually evaluate where H Canyon can support their missions.  However, we noted that the Department had not fully integrated potential candidate materials from all programs into planning future H Canyon operations.  

While the Department is working on infrastructure and maintenance to support the near-term missions of H-Canyon, the Department did not know how long it could continue to operate the 60 year old H Canyon complex.  According to an Environmental Management analysis, H Canyon has been minimally funded with only marginal investment in maintenance due to budget challenges.

During the course of the audit, we learned that the Department had initiated actions to evaluate future H-Canyon operations at both the Headquarters and site levels.  

Topic: Management & Administration