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Posted on Wed, Jul. 09, 2003 | | |
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NRC approves first of three licenses to recycle nuclear weapons material Associated Press KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the first of three license amendments Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. in Erwin will need to recycle weapons-grade uranium into commercial reactor fuel for the Tennessee Valley Authority. "The granting of this license amendment is a significant milestone in the vision to turn the liability of surplus nuclear material into useful electrical power for the Tennessee Valley region," NFS president Dwight Ferguson said. Nuclear fuel generated by the project will produce enough power to equal 800,000 rail cars of coal to steam generation plants, Ferguson said. NRC spokesman Ken Clark in Atlanta said the agency approved the amendment even though a public hearing request from interested groups is pending with the independent Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. The board is waiting for NFS to apply for the last of the three required license amendments. Its decision could "effect the ultimate outcome" of the project, Clark said. NFS officials said they expect to apply for that third license amendment in the third or fourth quarter. The so-called Blended Low-Enriched Uranium (BLEU) project, which has been in development since 1997, is intended to reduce the Department of Energy's stockpile of surplus highly enriched uranium. Under the first BLEU license amendment, NFS can begin receiving low-enriched uranyle nitrate solution from DOE's Savannah River Site in South Carolina. TVA, the country's largest public utility with three nuclear power stations, has agreed to accept 33 metric tons of the material after it has been "downblended" or diluted by NFS for use in commercial reactors. NFS, located about 80 miles north of Knoxville, currently makes nuclear reactor fuel for the Navy. A second license amendment, requested in October, will allow NFS to begin operating a new facility to convert the material into low-enriched uranium oxide. The third license amendment will be for a facility to convert the material into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. ON THE NET NRC, http://www.nrc.gov/ | |||