Expression of Interest - Commercial Decontamination of Nickel with Radiological Surface Contamination

DOE is seeking industry input for operationally mature technologies that could potentially support the recovery and recycle of ~6400 tons of radiologically surface-contaminated nickel recovered from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (GDP) decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) Project. The information gathered from this EOI will be used to determine whether it is in the DOE’s best interest to produce a high purity nickel product that may be released for use in commerce in accordance with the requirements of DOE Order 458.1. This information may also be used in the development of an acquisition strategy for the commercial scale processing of the nickel to remove the surface contamination and supporting DOE initiatives such as clean energy initiatives or zero emission vehicles (e.g., electric vehicle or grid scale batteries). Attachment 1 provides a summary of available characterization data obtained from sampling of Portsmouth nickel material. The primary contaminants of concern include uranium and other actinides, along with technetium. Since information on the specifications of nickel barrier is classified a previous approach considered smelting the material in an effort to remove the classification. This resulted in volumetrically contaminating the nickel which is subject to DOE’s moratorium on the release of volumetrically contaminated metals. As such, this EOI is only applicable to the nickel barrier material which has some level of surface contamination based on its use to enrich uranium fluoride gas. Since this barrier material only has surface contamination, it is subject to the authorized release limits in DOE Order 458.1, rather than the DOE’s moratorium on the release of volumetrically contaminated metals. It is acknowledged that similar material exists in the Paducah, KY GDP, as well as material at the Oak Ridge, TN GDP site that was shredded into a “flake” form. However, this EOI focuses on pursuit of viable technology for Portsmouth first, but may have potential applicability to the Paducah and Oak Ridge inventories at a later date. The reason DOE is evaluating the potential for use of the Portsmouth first is that the material is available now as a result of significant process building deactivation activities. Similar D&D activities are in preparation at Paducah, but inventory of surface contaminated barrier material is not expected to be available for several more years. While the flake material at Oak Ridge is believed to be surficially contaminated, additional verification activities need to be undertaken to verify container contents and uniformity. See attachment for further information regarding this EOI.