Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
5/15/2015
A federal court is asking the uranium conversion services company ConverDyn to show cause as to why its lawsuit against the Department of Energy should continue given DOE’s recent announcement that it plans to reduce the amount of excess uranium it uses to pay for various projects. ConverDyn sued DOE last year, alleging that the Department’s then-plans to increase its excess uranium transfers, which are used in part to pay for cleanup at the Portsmouth site, would further depress the market and threaten ConverDyn’s long-term viability. But last week DOE moved to substantially cut the amount of material it plans to transfer, and subsequently, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered that ConverDyn “show cause” before June 2 as to why the company’s claims should not be “dismissed as moot,” according to a court order released this week.
In its suit, ConverDyn claimed that its business will suffer “irreparable harm” as a result of DOE’s 2014 Secretarial Determination, which increased the uranium transfers to up to 15 percent of the domestic fuel market from a self-imposed 10 percent guideline. The increase in transfers would challenge ConverDyn’s long-term viability, according to the company, which stated that under federal law DOE is required to ensure that its uranium transfers will not have an adverse material impact on the U.S. nuclear industry. ConverDyn said its business is crucial as the only domestic supplier of uranium conversion services, which prepares mined uranium “yellowcake” into a form suitable for nuclear fuel.
Following the lawsuit, DOE late last year began developing a new secretarial determination, for the first time opening up the process to public comment. The new determination cut the 2,705 metric tons of uranium transfers per year in the May 2014 determination down to 2,100 metric tons. Last week, DOE argued to the court that the new determination replaces the one released last year upon which the lawsuit is based, therefore ConverDyn’s challenge is “moot.”
ConverDyn Still Expects Impacts, Weighing Options for Response
ConverDyn, however, says that it expects negative impacts to continue even under the reduced transfer levels, and it is weighing its options in the lawsuit. “While DOE’s decision to reduce the volume of uranium that it transfers is a step in the right direction, it does not eliminate adverse impact to the domestic conversion industry as required by federal law. Indeed, DOE’s expert consultants continue to show significant impacts to the domestic conversion industry even at these lower transfer levels,” spokesman Peter Dalpe said in a written response.
Dalpe added: “The judge’s order is part of the normal judicial process resulting from DOE’s issuance of a new Secretarial Determination on May 1. In essence, the judge is asking whether any of ConverDyn’s claims have been resolved by the new Secretarial Determination. ConverDyn is still considering its options in response to the order.”
