US EPA

3785460 

Technical Report 

Modern depleted uranium manufacturing facility 

Zagula, TA 

1995 

NTIS/02987472_3 

GRA and I 

GRA and I 

The Specific Manufacturing Capabilities (SMC) Project located at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) and operated by Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Co. (LMIT) for the Department of Energy (DOE) manufactures depleted uranium for use in the U.S. Army MIA2 Abrams Heavy Tank Armor Program. Since 1986, SMC has fabricated more than 12 million pounds of depleted uranium (DU) products in a multitude of shapes and sizes with varying metallurgical properties while maintaining security, environmental, health and safety requirements. During initial facility design in the early 1980's, emphasis on employee safety, radiation control and environmental consciousness was gaining momentum throughout the DOE complex. This fact coupled with security and production requirements forced design efforts to focus on incorporating automation, local containment and computerized material accountability at all work stations. The result was a fully automated production facility engineered to manufacture DU armor packages with virtually no human contact while maintaining security, traceability and quality requirements. This hands off approach to handling depleted uranium resulted in minimal radiation exposures and employee injuries. Construction of the manufacturing facility was complete in early 1986 with the first armor package certified in October 1986. Rolling facility construction was completed in 1987 with the first certified plate produced in the fall of 1988. Since 1988 the rolling and manufacturing facilities have delivered more than 2600 armor packages on schedule with 100% final product quality acceptance. During this period there was an annual average of only 2.2 lost time incidents and a single individual maximum radiation exposure of 150 mrem. SMC is an example of designing and operating a facility that meets regulatory requirements with respect to national security, radiation control and personnel safety while achieving production schedules and product quality.