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July 3, 2006 - Volume 84, Number 27
- p. 10
Government & Policy
NRC Approves New Enrichment Plant
Foreign-owned nuclear fuel facility would be first of its type to be built in U.S.
Jeff Johnson
A gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility was approved on June 23 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to be built in the dry lands of rural southeastern New Mexico. The facility will supply low-enriched nuclear fuel, about 5% U-235, for nuclear power plants. It is the first enrichment facility to be built in the U.S. using the more modern centrifuge technology to concentrate the amount of U-235 in uranium for use as commercial reactor fuel and the first major nuclear project approved by the NRC since 1978.
The $1.5 billion plant will supply about one-quarter of current U.S. demand for enriched uranium for commercial reactors when fully operational. It is owned and will be operated by Urenco, a consortium of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., the Dutch government, and several German utilities. A spokesperson for the consortium's U.S. operating partner, Louisiana Energy Services, says the plant would be the world's fourth Urenco enrichment facility.
Construction will begin in August, operations will start in 2008, and full production capacity is expected in 2013. The U.S. currently has one commercial enrichment facility, a gaseous diffusion plant in Paducah, Ky. It is operated by the U.S. Enrichment Corporation, which also plans to build a centrifuge enrichment facility.
The New Mexico congressional delegation and state and local officials heralded the permit and predicted that the facility will be an economic engine for the region. Speaking at a briefing to celebrate the NRC license, Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) hailed the plant as "a sign of things to come for the resurgence of nuclear power."
The enrichment plant will use one-tenth the electricity of a diffusion plant but will generate large amounts of waste, mostly depleted uranium, whose fate remains unclear. The State of New Mexico has an agreement with Urenco to cap the amount of on-site waste storage.
- Chemical & Engineering News
- ISSN 0009-2347
- Copyright © 2006 American Chemical Society
