DOE issues RFI for reuse of SRS heavy water

[Marlin]

DOE issues RFI for reuse of SRS heavy water

https://www.ans.org/news/2026-08-04/article-8267/doe-issues-rfi-for-reuse-of-srs-heavy-water/

[Core Content]

The Department of Energy is seeking industry input on the potential reuse of 530,000 gallons of heavy water currently stored at the Savannah River Site. This inventory remains from historical tritium and plutonium production operations that concluded in the 1980s. Interested parties must submit responses regarding processing, facility development, or site leasing by September 21.

The Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management has issued a request for information for industry input about the best ways to reuse and repurpose as much as 530,000 gallons of heavy water that is currently being stored at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The deadline to submit responses to the RFI is September 21.

Detailed information about the RFI, including contact information and instructions for submissions, was published in the Federal Register. Responses can be emailed to heavywaterrfi@doe.gov with the subject line "EM Heavy Water RFI Collaboration Response."

Background: SRS's inventory of heavy water—that is, water in which the hydrogen atoms have been replaced by deuterium, a heavier isotope of hydrogen—is left over from operations at the site's 400/D area. The 400/D area produced heavy water for moderating the five tritium- and plutonium-production reactors that were constructed at SRS in the 1950s. Heavy water production operations ceased in the early 1980s, and the reactors were shut down in the late 1980s.

Read the full article at ans.org:
https://www.ans.org/news/2026-08-04/article-8267/doe-issues-rfi-for-reuse-of-srs-heavy-water/