NRC ISSUES LICENSE TO SILEX LASER ENRICHMENT PLANT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday issued a license to General Electric-Hitachi for construction and operation of a proposed laser enrichment plant in North Carolina. The issuance comes after an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board authorized the move last week. GE-Hitachi subsidiary Global Laser Enrichment has yet to make a decision on whether or not to move ahead with the project, but it is now licensed to deploy its SILEX laser enrichment technology to produce up to 6 million separative work units per year enriched up to 8 percent uranium-235. While nonproliferation advocates have said that the process raises proliferation concerns because it is more easily concealable, the company this week emphasized in a release that it expects the technology to meet or exceed all pertinent safeguard regulations. “Receiving our NRC license is a tremendous accomplishment and strong testament to everyone involved in this project,” Chris Monetta, president and CEO of Global Laser Enrichment, said in a statement. “The technology we’ve developed could be one of the keys to the nation’s long-term energy security.”