The members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday unanimously approved a license for the Department of Energy to export nearly 5 kilograms of weapon-grade uranium to Europe for production of medical isotopes.
The four commissioners offered no comments on the matter before or after the roll-call vote on the memorandum and order. The document also rejects requests from four stakeholders for hearings to contest the export of highly enriched uranium (HEU).
“[H]aving reviewed all four petitions and the record before us, we conclude that granting a hearing in this proceeding would not be in the public interest or assist in our statutory decisionmaking,” according to the memorandum. “Holding a hearing to acquire additional information beyond what has been already provided thus far is unnecessary.”
The commission also determined “that the application satisfies all applicable statutory criteria based on the existing record.”
Last July, DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) applied for approval to ship over 4.5 kilograms of uranium enriched to 93.35% to the Belgium-based Institute for Radioelements (IRE). The material, generated at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, would be used for manufacturing isotopes including molybdenum-99 (Mo-99).
Four petitions for intervention and hearings were filed, from isotope producers Curium and NorthStar Medical Radioisiotopes; the nongovernmental Nuclear Threat Initiative; and Alan Kuperman, founder and coordinator of the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
The petitioners broadly argued that approving the license would undercut efforts to end use of proliferation-risky highly enriched uranium in isotope production, disfavoring companies that have made the costly conversion to using low-enriched uranium or developed other means for production.
“The NRC order, approving the full amount of requested HEU for export to IRE, claims to rely on U.S. law but instead twists that law beyond recognition on behalf of IRE’s economic convenience,” Kuperman said by email.
