Company wants license to construct and operate a centrifuge uranium enrichment plant
– By April Murelio –
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for formal review an application by Areva Enrichment Services LLC for a license to construct and operate a centrifuge uranium enrichment plant in Bonneville County, Idaho, and has made the application available on the agency’s Web site for public review.
Areva submitted the application Dec. 30. The NRC staff completed an initial acceptance review and determined that the application is sufficiently complete for the agency to begin its formal environmental and safety reviews. Acceptance of the application neither precludes future requests for additional information, nor indicates whether the Commission will issue a license.
The agency anticipates the formal reviews and adjudicatory hearings will take approximately 30 months. In the coming weeks, a notice of opportunity to request a hearing before the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, and a separate notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register.
The Areva application, minus certain classified and sensitive portions (e.g., proprietary information), is available on the NRC Web site at this page: http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/arevanc.html. The application has been assigned docket number 70-7015.