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Nuclear Power Related Media Thread, page-2563

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moosey

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26/08/22

18:27

Post #: 63351784
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Originally posted by BrokenClock1215 ↑

Thanks, interesting read. It reminds me of an energyintel article I recently saw that I was going to post somewhere here but never did. Article below, and here is the GAO report in reference

5Aug 2022
NUCLEAR FUEL
Call for Congressional Clarityon DOE Depleted UF6 Sales
A government watchdog report has recommended Congress actto clarify the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) authority to sellgovernment inventories of depleted nuclear fuel to a privatecompany. The DOE has long maintained it has such authority,but the report sheds light on how little clarity Congress has provided — specifically on that issue — but also on other aspects ofefforts by the legislative branch to bolster the nation’s domesticnuclear fuel industry.

The report calls into question DOE’s 2016 agreement to sell 24,000cylinders of its depleted UF6 to Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) foruse in its Silex laser enrichment technology. US-based GLE, a jointventure between Canadian uranium miner Cameco and Australia’sSilex Systems, is preparing to license and demonstrate its Australiantechnology for tails re-enrichment in Paducah, Kentucky. GLEwants to re-enrich the depleted UF6 to produce natural-grade uranium as UF6 at an annual rate of around 2,000 metric tons UF6 peryear (approximately 5.2 million pounds of U3O8 equivalent).

But in its Jul. 27 report the US Government Accountability Office(GAO) recommends that Congress clarify DOE’s legal authorityto sell depleted UF6 and specify “the conditions for sales” ofdepleted UF6, “such as requiring that DOE conduct a marketimpact study” to ensure that the sales, like that “of other typesof uranium in the government’s inventory, do not adverselyaffect the uranium industry.” The GAO has been at odds withDOE since 2008 over the interpretation of DOE’s legal authorityto sell depleted UF6 to a private company.
Following an initial 2016 agreement with DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), GLE and the EM in 2020 signed anamended agreement for the purchase of depleted tails material,including the condition that GLE starts commercial operationsbefore the end of 2030.

GLE told GAO officials that it has been evaluating how it couldhelp fill US nuclear energy industry needs for low-enriched uranium and conversion services, particularly in light of concernsabout US reliance on Russian nuclear fuel supply, according to thereport. Indeed, even as more hawkish members of Congress,such as Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso, call for a ban onRussian nuclear fuel imports, the topic of weaning the US nuclearfleet off Russian supply is increasingly aired in Congressionalenergy and security hearings. Yet there is little to no directionfrom Congress on how the industry should prepare itself, or evenwhat a domestic nuclear fuel industry should look like, includingwhat role companies and technologies from allied nations, suchas Australia, France and Germany, should play in providing securesupply to the US fleet.

But for Barrasso, ranking member of the Senate Energy andNatural Resources Committee, bolstering domestic uranium mining in his state has long been a priority. And GLE’s Silex foreign-owned re-enrichment plant would compete with domestic uranium mines — including recently planned restarts and first production — and Honeywell’s conversion plant in Illinois, the soledomestic UF6 plant, scheduled to return to operations in early2023. In 2018 Barrasso was key to securing funding for the clean-up of the Portsmouth, Ohio, gaseous diffusion enrichment site,thereby allowing the DOE to cancel a longstanding uranium bartering program that interfered with the uranium market. He evenheld up key DOE nominations to ensure the bartering ended.

Different Interpretations
In arguing its position, the GAO report cites the 1996 USECPrivatization Act, which governs the disposition of DOE-owneduranium, saying that the “DOE may not sell ‘any’ uraniumexcept as consistent with its [the Act’s] provisions.” And whilethe legislation “specifies the conditions for DOE’s sale or transferof a number of certain types of uranium — including ensuringthat certain transactions do not have an adverse material impacton the domestic uranium industry — it does not specify conditions for the sale or transfer of depleted uranium, including[depleted] UF6.”
EM and GLE, meanwhile, maintain that under both theDepartment of Energy Organization Act and the Atomic Energy Actof 1954, as amended, EM has the authority “to enter into agreements and to sell, transfer, exchange, store, and accept specialnuclear, source, and by-product material.”

GLE CEO Michael Goldsworthy told Energy Intelligence thatEM’s interpretation of its authority has been upheld “by theBush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations” and that the “agreement executed between the DOE and GLE in 2016 for thesale/purchase of depleted tails resulted from a competitive tenderprocess and represents a very positive financial and logisticaloutcome for the DOE.”
Indeed, GAO concludes in its recent report that because EM hasthree agreements (two with another DOE office and one with GLE)that might allow it to transfer up to 30,000 cylinders, including24,000 cylinders to GLE — “EM would reduce the amount of[depleted] UF6 it would have to convert.”

And the sale of those 30,000 cylinders could facilitate a far speedier cleanup (up to 30 years of operations) of two former uraniumenrichment sites (Portsmouth, and Paducah, in Kentucky) forwhich EM is responsible — and save more than $2 billion in operating costs, the GAO report concluded. That activity involves theconversion of depleted UF6 — a highly corrosive byproduct of theenrichment process that can be dangerous to human health andthe environment — into a more stable chemical form of depleteduranium that can be disposed of or reused.

As part of a directive from the former Trump administration,Congress in late 2020 appropriated $75 million for fiscal 2021 toprocure domestic uranium and conversion services. That procurement is currently underway. The Biden administration,meanwhile, has been largely focused on ongoing efforts to securehigh-assay low-enriched uranium (Haleu) for a plannedadvanced reactor program, with two demonstrations expected by the end of 2027.

So far, the DOE and Congress have largely devoted their attentionand appropriations to advanced reactor needs and very little tobuilding a more robust domestic nuclear fuel supply chain for
the existing fleet. And Russian nuclear fuel supply remains cappedat about 20% of US demand under the Russian SuspensionAgreement amended in 2020.
Jessica Sondgeroth, Washington

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Thanks BrokenClock, I had already posted something similar, but I really believe the circumstances have changed somewhat? I don't see them blocking any such a deal anytime soon, besides it is ony a stroke of the pen to correct it, besides there is another pressing reason why they would want this as well, but I won't post why, as it could be construed by some here as something that could hurt GLE in the process.

Last edited by moosey: 26/08/22

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