By Wayne Barber
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will not impose fines against U.S. uranium producer Cameco Resources for nine violations of federal regulations identified in the agency’s November 2016 inspection of the company’s radioactive waste transportation program.
The regulator determined after the inspection that Cameco had committed five Severity Level III violations, along with four lesser Level IV violations. A fine of $35,000 is the base considered for a Severity Level III violation, NRC Deputy Region IV Administrator Scott Morris said in a June 29 letter to Cameco Resources President Brent Berg.
“Because your facility has not been the subject of escalated enforcement action within the last two inspections, the NRC considered whether credit was warranted for Corrective Action,” the NRC official said in the letter, which was attached to a notice of violation. While Morris said he had received authority from the director of the NRC’s Office of Enforcement to forgo a fine, “significant violations in the future could result in a civil penalty.”
Additionally, NRC inspectors have been observing company staff’s progress in developing and implementing corrective actions laid out in an October 2016 letter from Cameco.
“We are pleased that the issues identified with our waste handling and transportation practices have been resolved to the satisfaction of the NRC,” said Cameco spokesman Gord Struthers.
The inspection was triggered by a leaking intermodal container of barium sulfate sludge that was shipped in March 2016 from Cameco’s uranium mine in Converse County, Wyo., for storage at Energy Fuel Resources’ White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah in March 2016. A prior leak also occurred in August 2015.
The Level III violations resulted from the same root cause – failure to ensure that an analytical laboratory used the right method to detect and quantify radium-226 in sludge samples ahead of shipment. “This resulted in the incorrect classification and use of inappropriate shipping containers for the pond settlement and barium sulfate sludge waste,” according to the NRC letter.
Cameco Resources subsequently carried out an extensive review of its waste management and transportation operations, which led to several procedural and equipment updates, including using different containers for transport of barium sulfate sludge, sampling the sludge via gamma spectroscopy to identify its low-specific activity level, and providing additional training to employees.
All sludge and sediment shipments remain suspended, Struthers said. The waste is stored in lined evaporation ponds at the company’s mine sites.
“Our corrective actions are substantially complete and will provide additional assurance that the environment will be protected when regular shipments resume. Timing will be determined by the NRC once they have verified implementation of our corrective actions,” said the Cameco representative.
Cameco Resources is the U.S. subsidiary of Cameco Corp. of Canada, which produces roughly 17 percent of the global supply of uranium from mines in Canada, the United States, and Kazakhstan.
The U.S. branch operates mines in Nebraska and Wyoming. The combined Cameco Wyoming operations at Smith Ranch (including the North Butte satellite mine) and Highland form the largest uranium production facility in the United States, according to Cameco.
