UPA Backs ConverDyn Motion to Halt DOE Uranium Transfers

The Uranium Producers of America is backing a case that aims to halt the Department of Energy’s transfers of excess uranium, which in a large part fund cleanup work at Portsmouth and some National Nuclear Security Administration programs. UPA, a uranium miner’s group, has weighed in support of a motion for summary judgment in a suit filed by uranium conversion company ConverDyn. The case claims that a May 2014 DOE Secretarial Determination did not fulfill a requirement to ensure the transfers wouldn’t harm the domestic uranium industry. “By ignoring critical facts and actually worsening the uranium price decline, the Secretarial Determination violated DOE’s statutory duty to protect the domestic industry from an ‘adverse material impact,’” UPA wrote in a brief of amicus curiae filed Sept. 12 in the U.S. District Court for D.C.

 

Among other items, ConverDyn has asked the court to invalidate the Secretarial Determination, halt transfers that do not go for a fair market value or exceed 10 percent of the annual domestic nuclear fuel requirement, a cap DOE recently lifted. But DOE has said that if the transfers were halted there would be a big impact on cleanup work at Portsmouth and certain nonproliferation programs. UPA said DOE’s Secretarial Determination is “arbitrary and capricious” in determining that the transfers won’t negatively impact the industry because it contradicts the evidence. “This evidence includes the ERI’s 2014 economic study on the impacts of DOE’s proposed transfers, input provided by UPA and other industry stakeholders, and past pronouncements from the Department itself,” the UPA brief states.