permit to mine, page-40

Tobo,

Thanks for posting this final piece of the jigsaw.

Tne schedule I summarised in my earlier post used an email from NRC to Gus Simpson - which only referred to the process up to Feb 2011 (ie the anticipated end of the 'technical assessment'). Clearly, there are more requirements beyond that (as shown on the schedule).

My immediate reaction was to wonder about the apparent discrepancy between the issuing of the Source Materials licence in mid-2013 and PEN's stated milestone of commencing production in March 2012.

So I contacted HQ about the 'apparent' discrepancy.

Based on that, there is no apparent need for concern (as expressed by Mikey). The post by Gregraphic is pretty close to the mark.

PEN stands by its targeted mining commencement (pending Mining Permit issuance) in early 2012.

The important thing to note about the NRC schedule is that the process milestone dates are TARGETS not actuals. They can be shortened or lengthened according to requirements.

With respect to this PEN management believes there is considerable opportunity for shortening - as per the following:

1. There is a building political climate to streamline approval processes (in the wake of the urgent need for clean energy - supported by the White House)

2. A large amount of time 6-12 months in the NRC's schedule includes the various RAI's (request - submission preparation - assessment). These stages may not be required (as per PEN's December 2010 announcement when submnitting the application, that it had studied all recent RAI's to other ISR applicants to make sure they HAD ALL BASES COVERED so that this stage would not be required.

3. PEN is actively lobbying high level NRC officials and Wyoming senators to have additional assessment resources allocated to the assessment process AND to have some of the processes undertaken concurrently.

Based on these initiatives, PEN is standing by its current milestones.

And one has to admit, they have kept to their milestones so far. Lets hope it continues.