The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday it has scheduled a meeting on apparent violations of federal low-level radioactive waste transport regulations by uranium producer Cameco Resources.
The regulator said in an April 3 letter to Cameco that it is considering “escalated enforcement action” after identifying nine seeming breaches of NRC and U.S. Transportation Department rules following an on-site inspection from Nov. 15 to 17, 2016, of the company’s uranium recovery site in Converse County, Wyo. The letter does not specify the form that action could take, but says a civil penalty might not be imposed given Cameco’s corrective actions and the fact that it has not faced escalated enforcement measures over the last two years.
The possible violations, the NRC said, included failing to accurately label waste being shipped to Energy Fuel Resources’ White Mesa Uranium Mill site in Utah for disposal; failure to designate and transport the waste as Low Specific Activity level two (LSA-II) material; and failure to use appropriate containers to transport that material.
The NRC probe addressed separate transportation incidents from Aug. 20, 2015, and March 28, 2016. In both events, waste transport packages were found to be leaking upon arrival at the disposal facility; contamination levels each time were found to be below Transportation Department limits for an exclusive use shipment.
“While no harm to people or the environment resulted, our performance in this matter does not meet our own expectations. We accept the validity of all of the apparent violations and have completed comprehensive corrective actions to address them,” Cameco Resources spokesman Gord Struthers said by email Tuesday.
The NRC-Cameco Resources meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. local time at the agency’s Region IV office at 1600 E. Lamar Blvd. in Arlington, Texas. The public can access the meeting by calling 888-469-0565 and using the passcode 4465769. There will be no finding regarding the safety significance of the investigation or any NRC action at the session, according to a press statement.
Cameco Resources is the U.S. subsidiary of Canada-based Cameco Corp.
