Interested parties have until mid-August to request a hearing or petition for intervention regarding an application for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for export of highly enriched uranium to Belgium.
Nuclear transportation provider Edlow International filed the application in June for authorization to transport 134.208 kilograms of uranium 235 in 144 kilograms of uranium, enriched to 93.2 percent. The material would be delivered to the Studiecentrum Voor Kernenergie (SCK-CEN) for fuel for operation of the organization’s Belgian Reactor No. 2, which is used for research into the effects of ionizing radiation on reactor components and the production of medical and industrial radioisotopes.
An amended application, dated July 11, made a couple notable changes to the earlier request. The first HEU shipment is still scheduled for March 1, 2017, but the final shipment would be made by Dec. 31, 2025, rather than by Dec. 31, 2026. The license expiration would also be moved up by one year, to Dec. 31, 2026.
“The plan is for the amount of fuel requested in this license agreement to be shipped in increments of up to 5 kg per shipment over a period of 6 years. The fuel will be in the form of fuel elements with a neutron absorber,” Marilena Conde, vice president for marketing and administration at Edlow, said in a July 7 letter to NRC licensing officer Andrea Ferkile. “This will allow for fuel fabrication in support of the Belgian Reactor No. 2’s inventory, and fuel requirements for a period of 5 years, up to end 2023.”
In the Federal Register notice, dated July 13 and posted on the NRC website this week, the agency said stakeholders had 30 calendar days from that date to request the hearing or petition for intervention. Requests can be filed electronically at www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html.
Written comments can be submitted in the same time period to Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications.
The NRC review is intended to ensure that the export license is in line with relevant agreements with the recipient country and would not harm the defense of the United States or the health and safety of its citizens, agency spokesman Scott Burnell said Thursday. He could not say when the review would be completed, but as of Thursday knew of no objections that had been filed against the application.
Reached on Thursday, Edlow International President Jack Edlow said he could not discuss the status of the license application.
If the deal goes through, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex would supply the HEU to contractor BWX Technologies, which would convert the material into fuel assemblies for the reactor, NNSA spokeswoman Francie Israeli said by email Friday. “NNSA reviews the technical merits of the license application as part of a broader executive branch review of the application,” she said.
Consolidated Nuclear Security, management and operations contractor for Y-12, on Thursday referred questions on the HEU export to the NRC. At press time Friday BWXT was still preparing responses to a request for information.
This is the second go-around for the license request for SCK-CEN. The prior application was pulled in March because SCK-CEN switched to BWXT to fabricate its fuel, Israeli said.
The United States last shipped a corresponding amount of HEU – 93.5 kilograms with 87.3 kilograms of uranium-235 – to the Belgian reactor in 2010, the nongovernmental International Panel on Fissile Materials said in June. It reportedly shipped smaller amounts from 2012-2014.
The United States and partner nations have been working to reduce the use of weapon-grade uranium in civilian nuclear reactors, to lower the threat that terrorists might obtain the material for use in nuclear or radiological weapons.
Globally, the NNSA has verified the closure or assisted in conversion to non-HEU fuel of 97 research reactors and isotope manufacturing plants. Another 156 are expected to be shut down or converted by 2035, according to Israeli.
The agency is also preparing new proliferation-resistant low-enriched uranium fuels that will enable BR-2 and other high-performing reactors to convert away from HEU. The United States joined Belgium and other states in committing to this effort during this year’s final Nuclear Security Summit.
“Belgium, in coordination with NNSA and the European HERACLES program, is working to develop a new LEU fuel that could be used in the BR-2,” the NNSA spokeswoman stated. “Belgium has committed to convert the reactor when a fuel is available.”
HEU to China
Separately, San Diego-based Thermo Fisher Scientific on June 28 filed an application for an NRC license for export of a far smaller amount of HEU – 0.130 kilograms of uranium-235 in 0.141 kilograms of uranium, enriched to 94 percent – to the Huaneng Shandong Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Co. in Shadong Province, China. The export would involve “Thirty six (36) fission chambers containing 3.9 grams each of enriched uranium used in neutron flux monitoring systems at two reactors,” according to the application. “Each fission chamber has a value of approximately tt M The total includes eight quadrupal fission chamber power range and intermediate range detector assemblies (four for each reactor) and one spare detector assembly.”
