The Nuclear Regulatory Commission planned to host a public informational meeting about the agency’s oversight of high-assay, low-enriched uranium for use in nuclear reactors.
Centrus Corp., Bethesda, Md., is the only company in the U.S. with a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to produce HALEU. In early February, the company completed construction and initial testing of a cascade of advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges, which it built under a cost-share contract with the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
To begin earning money from a follow-on DOE contract to operate the cascade, Centrus must produce a test batch of HALEU by year’s end for the agency’s approval. DOE wants the HALEU to help commercialize reactor designs that require more energy-dense fuel.
The deal to operate the 16-machine HALEU cascade at the agency’s Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio, is worth up to $1 billion over 10 years, with options.
It is that operation on which the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards wants to brief the public.
The meeting was scheduled for 6-8 p.m., Sept. 7 at the Pike County Career and Technology Center, located at 175 Beaver Creek Rd. in Piketon.
Following a presentation by the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, agency representatives will field questions from the audience
“The purpose of this meeting is for the NRC staff to meet directly with individuals to discuss regulatory and technical issues,” the NRC said in a statement announcing the meeting. “Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions of the NRC staff or make comments about the issues discussed throughout the meeting. However, the NRC is not actively soliciting comments on regulatory decisions at this meeting.”
