Last Modified: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 6:45 p.m.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun its review of the laser uranium enrichment plant proposed for GE Nuclear's facilities in Castle Hayne [North Carolina] .
The NRC said Monday its staff has accepted for formal review an environmental report submitted Jan. 30 by General Electric Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE).
The report is one part of an application for a 40-year license to build and operate a laser-based uranium enrichment facility at the existing General Electric/Global Nuclear Fuels-Americas site near Wilmington, the NRC'S statement explained.
The NRC staff has determined that the report is sufficiently complete to begin a formal technical review, the commission statement continued, noting Global Laser Enrichment has indicated it intends to file the rest of its application by the end of June.
Global Laser Enrichment, a venture owned 51 percent by General Electric, 25 percent by Hitachi and 24 percent by uranium producer Cameco Corp., has not disclosed an expected price for the enrichment plant, one of four proposed to open in the U.S. over the next several years to provide fuel for nuclear power plants.
The plant proposed for Castle Hayne is the only one that would enrich uranium by using lasers, a process the venture has successfully tested and is now seeking to ramp up for commercial production.
The NRC pointed out that the proposed facility would enrich uranium up to an assay level of 8 percent U-235, the isotope crucial for nuclear fission. The enriched uranium would be used in the production of fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors.
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