GLE confident as new laser process advances

The issue of whether NRC should be making nonproliferation evaluations etc. has not been resolved. Consequently I am posting the entire article:

Enriching uranium using laser technology. Sounds pretty advanced, doesn't it?
It will, in fact, be the technology's first commercial use if Global Laser Enrichment wins a license from regulators to build and operate such a plant in Castle Hayne.

Scrutiny continues of the plant's potential effects on the environment. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held two hearings Thursday in Wilmington on its draft environmental impact statement on the project, and the regulator has shown confidence that the effect will be small.

But security is another factor that has drawn interest in recent days, and that involves more than guards at the gate.

Protecting against proliferation – as in nuclear proliferation – starts with the technology licensed to GE for commercial development, said Tammy Orr, CEO of Global Laser Enrichment. That's the company, under GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, that seeks to make laser enrichment of uranium for nuclear fuel a successful, salable commodity.

The technology was classified by the U.S. and Australian governments in 2000, Orr said Thursday. The governments also signed the Silex Treaty, which continues to protect the technology, she added.

"We entered the process in 2006. At that time there were several government agencies involved to ensure that it was going to be acceptable for us to develop and deploy technology in the U.S.," she said.

"The decision was made that it was acceptable to move forward because all the protections were in place," Orr continued. "The protection regimes are established by the U.S. government and various agencies.

"We put in place a security program that meets the requirements and mostly exceeds the requirements of those regulations," she continued.

Orr said, however, that "there is discussion in the non-proliferation community about whether the NRC should become involved in non-proliferation.

"That's something that the government is going to address. Today this is an area where the government already has responsibility for across various agencies," she said.

Currently the NRC inspects facilities, after they have been built, for security of material, technology and the facilities themselves, said Roger Hannah, senior public affairs officer for the NRC who attended Thursday's environmental hearings.

But assessing proliferation concerns is not part of the regulator's licensing process, he explained.

Arms control advocates fear that commercialization of the technology could lead other countries to follow suit, raising concerns about the technology falling into the wrong hands, according to a report in the Washington Independent Wednesday.

"Countries like Iran ...have worked in the past to develop laser enrichment programs, and the experts fear successful commercialization of the technology in the U.S. would ... lead them to redouble their efforts," the article said.

But Hannah said everything that surrounds the laser technology and work on it is highly classified.

"We don't foresee any delays in the licensing process," Orr said. "We expect, based on NRC's most recent statements, we could complete the licensing effort by the end of next year."

Wayne Faulkner: 343-2329