nuclear-news

Weapons proliferation concern about laser uranium enrichment technology

U.S. approval for laser enrichment – could spur new clandestine research and construction in other nations that might make bomb-building efforts by nuclear-arms aspirants easier to conceal. 

Decision on Proliferation Assessments Pending at Nuclear Agency, Nov. 20, 2012 By Elaine M. Grossman Global Security Newswire 
A roadway marker points to nuclear fuel operations at a GE-Hitachi campus in North Carolina. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission might soon decide whether to demand proliferation threat assessments from firms seeking licenses for new fuel-making activities, such as a commercial laser uranium-enrichment approach proposed by the energy conglomerate
(Tom Clements/Alliance for Nuclear Accountability).
WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is poised to consider
whether to begin requiring license applicants for emerging
technologies to evaluate any associated proliferation risks, following
the submission of a staff paper on the matter late last month,
according to officials.

The five NRC commissioners might debate the viability of a rule-making
change — spurred by a 2010 petition from the American Physical
Society — alongside a potential review of the agency’s September
approval of the first U.S. commercial license for using lasers to
enrich uranium, as timing would have it.

Proliferation concerns surrounding a proposal by energy giant
GE-Hitachi to build a laser enrichment facility in Wilmington, N.C.,
initially prompted the nation’s oldest organization of physicists to
submit the rule-change petition two years ago.

Reform advocates have argued that although existing NRC license
application reviews focus on plant security, they do not adequately
address broader proliferation dangers.

For example, they say, U.S. approval for laser enrichment — which is
believed feasible in small facilities using minimal electricity —
could spur new clandestine research and construction in other nations
that might make bomb-building efforts by nuclear-arms aspirants easier
to conceal. ….
http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/decision-proliferation-assessments-pending-nuclear-agency/

November 22, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | technology, Uranium, USA