The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the public comment period for a license application to export 10,000 tons of nuclear material from Oak Ridge, Tenn., to Canada, after fielding concerns from a New York lawmaker.
Massachusetts-based UniTech Services Group in October 2016 filed an application with the NRC to import and export the radioactive material from Ontario, Canada, and then ship it back after the items had been decontaminated at the company’s Oak Ridge Service Center. The nuclear material is described in NRC documents as tools, metal, and other solid materials of varying composition. The NRC has declined to offer exact details on the application as the matter remains under litigation. UniTech specializes in decontamination of protective clothing, tools, and metal.
UniTech officially applied for import-export authorization, but the NRC on March 30 notified the company that it did not need an import license, as the material is already permitted under existing general import license regulations. The NRC is still evaluating the export license application.
Anti-nuclear groups Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Beyond Nuclear on April 6 requested that the NRC reconsider its decision, saying the regulator had granted a general import license to UniTech without offering the opportunity for a public hearing. The NRC responded that the petitioners fundamentally misunderstood the regulator’s decision to take no action on the import request. UniTech’s proposed activities are authorized under existing law, without the need for a specific license, the NRC said.
The NRC’s decision to extend the public comment period from mid-March to May 5 followed a request from Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), who has kept close tabs on planned shipments of highly enriched uranium target residue material from Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario to the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.
“I was concerned to learn of another proposed plan to transport enormous quantities of nuclear material without providing stakeholders with adequate time to assess the full scope and safety of transport and processing activities, as well as the potential risk to our environment,” Higgins wrote in a letter to the NRC on March 20.
