{"id":11700,"date":"2012-09-26T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vo.afonico-test.ru\/novosti-otrasli\/laser-enrichment-one-step-closer-as-licence-issued\/"},"modified":"2012-09-26T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T09:00:00","slug":"laser-enrichment-one-step-closer-as-licence-issued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/novosti-otrasli\/laser-enrichment-one-step-closer-as-licence-issued\/","title":{"rendered":"Laser enrichment one step closer as licence issued"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued the first ever construction and operation licence for a full scale laser enrichment facility\u00a0\u2014 opening the door to commercialisation of this new nuclear technology.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The licence received yesterday allows GE-Hitachi (GEH) subsidiary Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) to build a plant capable of producing six million separative work units annually, and to enrich uranium up to 8% uranium-235\u00a0by weight. It would be constructed in Wilmington North Carolina at the site of GEH\u2019s existing fuel fabrication plant, although the company has yet to indicate whether or not they will proceed with construction. A spokesperson informed World Nuclear News <\/em>that any such decision will probably occur over the next several months and be determined by market and economic considerations.<\/p>\n

Enrichment matters<\/h4>\n

There are currently two major kinds of enrichment used in the world today, by diffusion and centrifuge, both of which rely upon the difference in mass of uranium-235\u00a0compared to uranium-238\u00a0to separate and collect the valuable fissile element. Enrichment accounts for about half the costs of delivered nuclear fuel and about 5% of the cost of nuclear generated electricity.<\/p>\n

Laser enrichment\u00a0\u2014 such as that developed by GLE\u00a0\u2014 uses a different approach. Lasers selectively ionize gas molecules containing uranium-235\u00a0which are then collected on charged plates. Facilities required for this process are expected to be much smaller than for conventional enrichment, require far less energy to run and be theoretically capable of separating out a much higher ratio of uranium-235.<\/p>\n

The technology has been a long time in development. Work on laser isotope separation originally began in the 1970s but never progressed past the research stage until now. GE became a driving force in the technology\u2019s progress when it entered into partnership with Australia\u2019s Silex Systems in 2006\u00a0and took over the development of their SILEX laser system\u00a0\u2014 rebranding it as GLE in the process. The company was later spun off and is now oned jointly by GE (51%), Hitachi (25%) and Cameco (24%).<\/p>\n

As the technical feasibility of the SILEX process was demonstrated GE described it as a \u201cgame changing technology\u201d and sought to address safety and proliferation concerns. GLE submitted its licence application to the regulator in January 2009. Receiving it removes the last regulatory hurdle to the development of a commercial facility. The NRC is convinced that the proposed Wilmington facility \u201cwould not pose undue risk to the health and safety or workers or the public\u201d.<\/p>\n

GLE mentions that it has also worked closely with both the US Department of State and Department of Energy as well as independent proliferation experts to make sure their technology meets existing safeguard regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cReceiving our NRC licence is a tremendous accomplishment and strong testament to everyone involved in this project,\u201d said Chris Monetta, GLE\u2019s president and CEO. \u201cThe technology we\u2019ve developed could be one of the keys to the nation\u2019s long-term energy security. At a minimum, it could provide a steady supply of uranium enriched right here in the USA to the country\u2019s nuclear reactors\u201d.<\/p>\n

Silex Systems CEO Michael Goldsworthy commented, \u201cThis is a seminal moment in the history of the nuclear industry\u2026 After more than 40\u00a0years of international research and billions of dollars invested by various governments and companies around the world in a race to achieve laser uranium enrichment, Silex and GLE are very proud to be the only successor in this incredibly challenging technological endeavour. I would like to thank and congratulate the entire combined Silex-GLE team on this fantastic achievement\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued the first ever construction and operation licence for a full scale laser enrichment facility\u00a0\u2014 opening the door to commercialisation of this new nuclear technology. The licence received yesterday allows GE-Hitachi (GEH) subsidiary Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) to build a plant capable of producing six million separative work…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-novosti-otrasli"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.6","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ru","en"],"languages":{"ru":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLaser enrichment one step closer as licence issued - JSC \u201cVO \u201cSafety\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/novosti-otrasli\/laser-enrichment-one-step-closer-as-licence-issued\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Laser enrichment one step closer as licence issued - 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