Athena: Stewarding Capabilities for Nonproliferation in Irradiated Fuel Processing
Reinvigorating and sustaining U.S. expertise for material recovery from irradiated nuclear fuel
The Athena project aims to reinvigorate and sustain U.S. expertise in the nonproliferation challenges associated with material recovery from irradiated nuclear fuel
The Athena project aims to reinvigorate and sustain U.S. expertise in the nonproliferation challenges associated with material recovery from irradiated nuclear fuel. The primary goals involve modernizing facilities and equipment across the multilaboratory team and leveraging equipment to build expertise and leadership across the complex through innovative science and technology.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) collaborates with Idaho, Savannah River, and Argonne National Laboratories on the Athena project. PNNL will be modernizing solvent extraction test beds at the Radiochemical Processing Laboratory that will be housed in nonradioactive, glove box, and hot-cell environments.
The Athena project is sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration, Nonproliferation Stewardship Program (NSP), whose mission is to promote the growth and long-term sustainment of a technically diverse workforce that could address nonproliferation challenges of the future. NSP establishes state-of-the-art science and technology environments at the Department of Energy national laboratories to execute an effective knowledge preservation and knowledge transfer strategy between the few remaining subject matter experts and early career staff. The novel hands-on experiences are based on technical grand challenges developed through collaboration with interagency partners. The deliberate and long-term program execution strategy coupled to relevant technical grand challenges assures that the program develops meaningful capabilities while developing the next generation of nuclear nonproliferation experts.
