The Commercial Nuclear Fuel Chain[i]

 Mary Byrd Davis

I.  EXTRACTION

The Uranium Industry Annual 2000 reports that uranium was obtained in 2000 from one underground mine and from four in situ leaching operations.[ii] (In in-situ leaching, the uranium-bearing ore remains in its geological deposit.  A liquid that will leach the ore is injected through wells into the deposit; and then pumped out through other wells.) 

 The underground mine went on standby in 2001; one of the four in situ operations closed during 2001. Thus, the only active mines as of October 2001 are the three in situ operations. 

I.A.  Underground mine:

Schwartzwalder Mine—shut down

Type:  multi-level, hard rock underground mine

Location:  Colorado

Owner:  Cotter Corporation (General Atomics 100%)

Period of operation:  1965?-2001

Production:  total to around 2001, 17 million pounds U3O8 (6500 metric tons of uranium)

Reserves:  16 million pounds U3O8 (about 6150 metric tons of uranium) 

Cotter obtained the land for the Schwartzwalder mine in 1965.[iii] General Atomics acquired the Cotter Corporation from Commonwealth Edison Company in early 2000.[iv]  Subsequently General Atomics decided “to place the mine on temporary standby and begin reclamation of the property.”[v]

I.B.  In situ leaching operations:

Crow Butte

Type:  in situ leaching operation

Location:  northwestern Nebraska

Owner:  Uranerz US 67.691% (Cameco 100%) ; Geomex Minerals Inc., USA 32.309% (Cameco 100%)

Period of operation: 1991-     

Nominal capacity: 1,000,000 pounds U308 per year but could expand to 2,000,000 pounds per year[vi]; 380 metric tons uranium per year[vii] 

Actual production: 800,000 pounds U3O8 (308 metric tons uranium) in both 2000 and 2001[viii]

Reserves:  5.2 million pounds U308 as of 2001[ix]

Highland

Type:  in situ leach operation

Location: central Wyoming

Owner: Power Resources, Inc. 74.25% (Cameco 100%); Geomex Minerals Inc., USA, known as Converse County Mining Venture 25.75% (Cameco 100%)

Period of operation: 1972-1984 conventional mine; 1988-  leaching

Nominal capacity:  1,000,000 pounds of U3O8 per year; could be raised to 2,000,000 pounds per year [x] ;   580 metric tons uranium per year[xi]

Actual production:  900,000 pounds U308 in both 1999 and 2000

Reserves:  5.7 million pounds U3O8 as of 2001[xii]

Cameco plans to suspend development activities and reduce annual production gradually from 700,000 pounds U3O8 (269 metric tons uranium) in 2001 to 300,000 pounds U3O8 (115 metric tons uranium) in 2003, with the option of increasing production if uranium prices rise.[xiii]  In July 2000, Power Resources requested a ten-year license renewal.[xiv]

Smith Ranch

Type:  in situ leach operation

Location:  east-central Wyoming

Owner:  Rio Algom Mining Corp. (Billiton Plc 100%)

Period of operation:  1997- 

Nominal capacity:  2,000,000 pounds of U308 per year;  1150 metric tons uranium per year[xv]

Actual production: ?

Reserves:  12,500 t of uranium at 0.085

 Billiton acquired Rio Algom Limited  in November 2000.[xvi] 

Christensen Ranch—shut down

Type:  in situ leach operation

Location: east-central Wyoming

Owner:  71% by Cogéma Mining Inc., known as COMIN (Cogéma Resources Inc.100%)[xvii]

Period of operation:  1989-2000

Nominal production: 250 metric tons of uranium per year[xviii]

The mine ceased operation in June 2000.  Cogéma is currently restoring the groundwater.  Restoration of the groundwater is expected to be completed in 2005.  Final decommissioning and surface reclamation will then take place.[xix]

Hydro Resources—planned

Type:  in situ leach operations

Location:  Crownpoint and Church Rock, in the Eastern Navajo Agency, New Mexico

Owner:  Hydro Resources, Inc. (Uranium Resources Inc. 100%)

Period of operation:  ?

            Hydro Resources has received a license from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to begin construction of in situ leaching operations on three sites.  It does not plan to start until the price of uranium rises to $15 a pound.[xx]  Residents of the area, and others are working to prevent the mining.

II.  CONCENTRATION 

In 2000, one conventional mill and four unconventional plants (in situ leaching operations) were in operation.  The conventional mill closed in 2001; the three in situ operations active at the end of 2000 are still active as of October 2001.  Five  conventional mills were on standby in 2000 and remain on standby in 2001.  One of the five processes waste materials containing uranium.

II.A.  Conventional mill

Canon City Mill

Type:  Conventional uranium mill

Location:  Colorado

Owner:  Cotter  Corp. (General Atomics 100%)

Period of operation: 1958-2001[xxi]

Nominal capacity:  400 short tons  of ore per day[xxii]  

Actual production:

           General Atomics bought Cotter Corp. from Commonwealth Edison Co. in early 2000.[xxiii]

Ambrosia Lake—on standby

Type:  Conventional uranium mill

Location:  New Mexico, about 25 miles north of Grants

Owner:  Quivira Mining Corporation (Rio Algom 100% [Billiton, PC 100%])

Period of operation:  1958-1992[xxiv]

Nominal capacity:  7000 short tons of ore per day[xxv]; 3300 metric tons uranium per year[xxvi]

            Recovered uranium by processing mine water solution in 2000 and in mid 2001.[xxvii]

Dawn/Ford—on standby

Type:  Conventional uranium mill

Location:  Washington State

Owner:  Dawn Mining, a subsidiary of Newmont[xxviii]

Period of operation:

Nominal capacity:  450 short tons of ore per day[xxix]

Recovered uranium by processing the waste stream at a mine water treatment plant during 2000.  In the past it has processed the waste stream at the end of the year.[xxx]

Shootaring—on standby

Location:  Utah

Owner:  Plateau Resources Ltd. (US Energy Corp. 100%)[xxxi]

Period of operation:  1982-1984[xxxii]

Nominal capacity:  750 short tons of ore per day;[xxxiii] 380 metric tons uranium per year[xxxiv]

Sweetwater (Green Mountain) —on standby

Location:  Wyoming

Owner:  Kennecott Uranium Company[xxxv]

Period of operation:  1981-1983[xxxvi]

Nominal capacity:   3000 short tons of ore per day [xxxvii]; 350 metric tons uranium per year[xxxviii]

White Mesa—on standby

Type:  conventional uranium mill

Location:  near Blanding, Utah

Owner:  International Uranium (USA) Corp. (International Uranium Holdings Corp. 100%)[xxxix]

Period of operation:  1980-1997[xl]

Nominal capacity:  2000 short tons of ore per day[xli]

The mill now processes “alternate feed,” ie waste materials containing uranium, in particular waste from the federal Formerly Utilized Remedial Action Program (Fusrap). It sells any uranium that it recovers and disposes of the remaining material in the tailings site at the mill.

II.B.  Unconventional plants

The four in situ leaching operations (Crow Butte, Highland, Smith Ranch, and Christensen Ranch) are described above.  In the in situ operations the liquid that is pumped out of the ground is treated on site to concentrate the uranium.

 During 2000 two in situ leaching operations that were no longer active recovered some uranium from the processing of mine water and waste streams (as did the conventional mills Ambrosia Lake and Dawn Ford, described above).

Holiday-El Mesquite—shut down

Type:  in situ leaching

Location:  Texas

Owner:  71% by COMIN (Cogéma Resources Inc. 100%)[xlii]

Period of operation:  1979-1997

Nominal capacity:  250 metric tons uranium per year.[xliii]

            Recovered uranium by processing water from in situ mine restoration during 2000.

Irigaray Project—shut down

Type:  in situ leaching 

Location:  east-central Wyoming

Owner:  71% by COMIN (Cogéma Resources Inc. 100%)[xliv]

Period of operation:  1978[xlv]-1994[xlvi]

Nominal capacity:  130 metric tons uranium per year[xlvii]

            Recovered uranium by processing water from in situ mine restoration during 2000.

III.  CONVERSION 

Honeywell  Specialty Chemicals Plant

Purpose:  conversion of uranium oxide to uranium hexafluoride

Location:  Metropolis, Illinois

Owner:  Honeywell International Corp.

Process:  dry fluoride volatility conversion process

Period of operation:  1959-   

Capacity:  12,700[xlviii] or 14,000 metric tons per year[xlix] 

Honeywell International Corp. was formed in December 1999 by the merger of Honeywell Inc., based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with Allied Signal Inc., based in Morris Township, New Jersey.  Allied Signal brought to the new company the Allied-Signal uranium conversion plant, now known as the Honeywell Specialty Chemicals Plant.[l]

ConverDyn, a general partnership between affiliates of Honeywell and General Atomics, is the exclusive agent for conversion sales.[li]  The firm was created in 1992 by Allied Signal and General Atomics to market conversion to uranium hexafluoride (UF6).

This was the year in which General Atomics placed its Sequoyah Fuels Corporation plant, which also converted uranium oxide to UF6, on stand-by.[lii]  That plant, located in Gore, Oklahoma, is now undergoing decommissioning.[liii]

          Because of an oversupply of UF6 on the world market, the Honeywell plant had to cut production of UF6 by 25% in 1999.  Therefore, the plant diversified and now offers chemical products in addition to UF6.[liv]

IV.  ENRICHMENT

Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant

Purpose: enrichment of uranium

Location:  McCracken County in western Kentucky (about  ten miles west of Paducah)

Owner: US Department of Energy

Operator:  United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC)

Process:  enrichment of uranium hexafluoride by gaseous diffusion

Period of operation:  1954- [lv]  

Nominal capacity:  11.3 million SWU[lvi] per year as of 1999[lvii]; now rated by USEC at 8 million SWU

Actual production:  5 million SWU anticipated by USEC in its fiscal year 2002[lviii]

USEC (first as a government-owned corporation and then as a private entity) has leased the uranium enrichment facilities at Paducah and also at Portsmouth (See below) from the US Department of Energy since 1993.  Until 2001 Paducah was authorized by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to enrich uranium hexafluoride to only 2.75% uranium 235 by weight.[lix]  The Paducah plant shipped the UF6 that it enriched to the K-25 plant at Oak Ridge[lx] until that plant shut down, or to Portsmouth to be enriched to the appropriate level for civilian or military use.  Recently USEC upgraded the Paducah plant to enable it to stand alone.  March 19, 2001, the NRC authorized Paducah to enrich uranium to 5.5% uranium 235.[lxi]  However, according to an informed source, Paducah had not reached that level as of November 5, 2001.  Most nuclear power plants use uranium enriched to between 3.5% and 5% uranium 235.  Paducah will continue to ship enriched UF6 to Portsmouth for an indefinite period of time, but only for final packaging and shipping.

Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant—cold standby

Purpose: enrichment of uranium

Location:  Pike County in southcentral Ohio (Piketon is the nearest town; Portsmouth is twenty-five miles to the south)

Owner: US Department of Energy

Operator:  United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC)

Process:  enrichment of uranium hexafluoride by gaseous diffusion

Period of operation:  1956-  [lxii]

Nominal capacity:  8.6 million SWU per year[lxiii]

The Portsmouth plant enriched UF6 to as high as 97% uranium 235, until the government stopped producing highly enriched uranium (HEU) in 1991.  Afterwards it enriched up to 10% uranium 235.[lxiv]  However, USEC blended down 13 tons of HEU UF6, containing about 2 million SWU, at the Portsmouth plant.  Blending was completed in 1998.[lxv] USEC stopped enriching uranium at the Portsmouth plant in May 2001.[lxvi]  Only the plant’s transfer and shipping stations remain in operation.

Former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced in October 2000 that the plant would be placed on cold standby for five years for possible restart in the event of a significant disruption in the nation’s supply of enriched uranium.  He also pledged that DOE would finance a pilot centrifuge plant at Portsmouth.[lxvii]  The Bush administration has funded the first two years of cold standby,[lxviii] but as of early November 2001 funding for the remaining years and for the centrifuge pilot was in question. 

V.  FUEL FABRICATION (grouped according to nuclear materials used)

V.A. Low-enriched uranium

Global Nuclear Fuel—Americas

Purpose:  production of fuel for boiling water reactors

Location:  Wilmington, North Carolina

Owner:  Global Nuclear Fuel—Americas (Global Nuclear Fuel, LLC 100%

[General Electric Co. 51%; Hitachi Ltd. 24.5%; Toshiba Corporation 24.5%])[lxix]

Period of operation:  1982-  

Nominal capacity:  1200 metric tons of heavy metal per year[lxx]

General Electric Company (GE), Hitachi, Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. established Global Nuclear Fuel, an international  nuclear-fuel joint venture, January 1, 2000.  The joint venture has two subsidiaries:  Global Nuclear Fuel—Americas and Japan Nuclear Fuel (JNF), the latter established by the three partners in 1967. The three partners transferred their nuclear fuel marketing, design, and development operations to the two subsidiaries.  Both Global Nuclear Fuel—Americas and Japan Nuclear Fuel develop, design, and manufacture fuel for boiling water reactors.[lxxi]

Framatome ANP—Lynchburg

Purpose:  manufacture of fuel assemblies for commercial reactors

Location: Lynchburg, Virginia

Owner: Framatome ANP (Framatome 66%; Siemens 34%)

Period of operation:   1982[lxxii]-

Nominal capacity:  sources differ: 400 metric tons heavy metal per year [lxxiii]; 200 metric tons of fuel assemblies[lxxiv]

Actual production: in 1998, 650 fuel assemblies equaling 300 tons of fuel[lxxv]

At Lynchburg, Framatome ANP fabricates fuel assemblies (but not UO2 powder and pellets) for commercial nuclear power plants, both boiling water and pressurized water.[lxxvi] The plant receives uranium oxide pellets, which it loads into fuel rods.  It then bundles the fuel rods into assemblies.  At Lynchburg but across town from the fuel plant, Framatome ANP inspects, repairs, and services nuclear power plants.

In the past, the two types of operations (fuel production and the servicing of power plants) were performed by two subsidiaries of the Framatome Technologies Group (FTG): Framatome Cogéma Fuels and Framatome Technologies Inc.[lxxvii]  The parent company of FTG was Framatome S.A., headquartered in Paris.

            Framatome Cogema Fuels was formerly B&W Fuel Co., the fuel operation of Babcock and Wilcox. [lxxviii]  Framatome Technologies was formerly B&W Nuclear Technologies.[lxxix]

            The French Framatome Group and the German company Siemens merged to form Framatome ANP January 31, 2001. Framatome ANP became a subsidiary of the new French nuclear holding company Areva in September 2001.[lxxx]

Framatome ANP is one of the major subcontractors that will help provide Mox fuel fabrication and reactor irradiation services for DOE’s plutonium disposition program.[lxxxi]

Framatome ANP - Richland

Purpose:  manufacture of fuel for commercial reactors

Location:  Richland, Washington

Owner:  Framatome ANP (Framatome 66%; Siemens 34%)

Period of operation:  1970-  [lxxxii]

Process:  dry conversion process since 1997 [lxxxiii]  

Nominal capacity:  700 metric tons heavy metal (ie uranium as a metal) per year [lxxxiv] (see below)

            The facility fabricates fuel for boiling water and pressurized water reactors.[lxxxv] In the process, it produces UO2 powder (by converting enriched UF6 to UO2), UO2 pellets, and finished assemblies. As of 1999, it  supplied UO2 powder to customers in Japan  and pellets to what is now Framatome ANP’s Lynchburg plant. According to Ralf Gueldner, a Siemens executive, the plant has a capacity of 1,000 to 1,200 metric tons per year for UO2 powder conversion, and totals about 700 metric tons per year in pelletizing and rod and bundle assembling capacity [lxxxvi] 

            The plant was formerly operated by the German Siemens Power Corporation, a subsidiary of Siemens Nuclear Power GmbH, which acquired it from the former Exxon Nuclear.[lxxxvii]

ABB-Combustion-Engineering Plant

Purpose:  manufacture of fuel rods for civilian reactors and, in the early years, military projects

Location:  Hematite, Missouri (in Jefferson County, south of St. Louis)

Owner:  Westinghouse Electric Co. (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. 100%)

Period of operation:  1956[lxxxviii]-2001

Nominal capacity:  450 metric tons of heavy metal per year[lxxxix]

            June 29, 2001 when the Hematite plant ceased production,[xc] it was manufacturing fuel for boiling water and pressurized water reactors.  The main raw material was enriched UF6, which the plant transformed into UO2 for incorporation into the pellets that it placed in fuel rods.

The first owner of the facility was Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, which converted uranium hexafluoride unto uranium oxide and uranium metal for the Atomic Energy Commission and manufactured fuel for commercial power plants.[xci] 

By the 1980s, the facility was owned by Combustion Engineering.  In 1989, the Swiss-based ABB bought the plant, which then became known as the ABB-Combustion Engineering plant.[xcii] For years it had fabricated only pressurized water reactor fuel, but after the purchase by ABB, it began to make, in addition, boiling water reactor fuel, based on technology from ABB Atom.[xciii] 

 In 2000 British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. (BNFL) completed acquisition of the commercial nuclear power business of ABB and integrated it into Westinghouse Electric Co. (BNFL had purchased what is now Westinghouse Electric from the CBS Corporation in 1999.)[xciv]  Westinghouse Electric Co. announced May 5, 2000 that it would close the Hematite facility and consolidate most of its US fuel operations at its Columbia, South Carolina plant.[xcv]

Westinghouse is to submit a plan for cleaning up the Hematite plant to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by December of 2001.  It will then study records and examine the soil and water.  Actual cleanup and decommissioning are expected to begin around 2004.[xcvi]

Westinghouse Electric Co.--Columbia

Purpose:  manufacture of fuel for commercial reactors

Location:  Columbia, South Carolina

Owner:  Westinghouse Electric Co. (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. 100%)

Period of operation:  1986-      

Nominal capacity:  1150 tons of heavy metal/year [xcvii]

The plant currently manufactures fuel for pressurized water reactors and for Russian VVER.[xcviii] 

  In 1999 British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. (BNFL) purchased what is now Westinghouse Electric from the CBS Corporation.  (The corporation that was originally named Westinghouse bought CBS in 1995 and became the CBS Corporation in 1997.)[xcix]

             In 2000 BNFL purchased the commercial nuclear power business of the Swiss-based ABB.  It integrated this business into Westinghouse Electric Co.  As a result, Westinghouse Electric Co. became the owner of the fuel fabrication plant in Hematite, Missouri, that had belonged to ABB-Combustion Engineering. 

Westinghouse has shut down the Hematite plant and consolidated most of its fuel operations at Columbia; but it has not carried to Columbia the manufacture of boiling water reactor fuel carried out at Hematite.[c]

V.B. Plutonium

[MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility] -planned

Purpose:  manufacture of mixed oxide fuel (MOX: uranium and plutonium oxides)

Location: DOE’s Savanna River Site, F Canyon[ci]

Owner:  US Department of Energy

Operator:  DCS (Duke Engineering Services, Cogéma, Stone and Webster, and others)

            In March 1999, DOE awarded a contract to a consortium known as DCS for design, construction, operation, and deactivation of a plant to make mixed oxide fuel (MOX—uranium oxide and plutonium oxide).  The contract also assigns to DCS a responsibility for irradiation of the fuel in commercial reactors.  The purpose is to render plutonium removed from old nuclear weapons unsuitable for reuse in new weapons. DCS is composed of Duke Engineering Services, Cogéma, and Stone and Webster, supported by a host of subcontractors including Framatome Cogéma Fuels (now Framatome ANP), Nuclear Fuel Services, and the Belgian Belgonucléaire. The consortium currently plans to irradiate the MOX fuel in Duke’s Catawba (York, South Carolina) and McGuire (Huntersville, North Carolina) reactors.[cii]  Other utilities have expressed an interest in weapons MOX fuel use and DOE has said it would look into using additional reactors at the program progresses.

Construction of the plant is dependent on licensing and funding.  In the fall of 2001 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is in the process of considering whether to license the plant and is compiling an Environmental Impact Statement to provide a basis for its decision.[ciii]  Also, an environmental impact statement is being prepared.  Congress has provided funding for the 2002 Fiscal Year.  However, the Bush administration is reviewing the entire plutonium disposition program.  The plans are hotly contested by numerous safe energy, environmental, and peace organizations that advocate other methods of rendering the plutonium unusable. 

Nuclear Fuel Services (See Highly-enriched uranium below)

V.C.  Highly-enriched uranium (HEU)

BWX Technologies (BWXT)

Purpose:  manufacture of fuel for naval and research reactors

Location:  a 500-acre site on a peninsula in the James River, at Lynchburg, Virginia (Schnabel)

Owner:  BWX Technologies Inc. (McDermott International, Inc. 100%)

Period of operation:  1956-

BWXT is licensed to handle highly enriched uranium.[civ]  The Naval Nuclear Fuel Division of BWXT manufactures fuel for the US Navy and plate-type fuel for reactors dedicated to research, testing, and teaching.[cv]

Among the other work carried out by BWX Technologies at Lynchburg is the downblending of highly enriched uranium.  In recent years the company has undertaken two major downblending projects:  1) downblending 50 metric tons of uranium from DOE’s Portsmouth and Oak Ridge plants for USEC.  BWXT received the material in December 1999 and expects to complete the work by mid-2005;  (2) downblending 5.8 t of uranium 235 that the United States removed  from Kazakhstan in 1994.  The uranium was downblended under a 1995 Project Sapphire contract with DOE.

The plant operates a uranium recovery program, which includes the recovery of uranium from components such as scrap metal and from excess material from fuel fabrication.[cvi]

The plant originally belonged to the Atomic Energy Division; later to the Naval Nuclear Fuel Division.  It was acquired by McDermott in 1978.  BWXT was formed in 1997.[cvii]

Nuclear Fuel Services Inc.  (NFS)

Purpose:  production of fuel and materials for fuel, for civilian and military purposes

Location:  Erwin, Tennessee

Owner:  NFS Services Ltd., a private, limited partnership[cviii]   

Period of operation: 1957-

NFS is licensed to process or store up to 7,000 kg of HEU.  Between 1978 and 1999,  NFS was the sole facility “to convert uranium hexafluoride into the chemical and physical form used in naval reactor fuel elements.”[cix]  Presumably this situation has not changed.

The company, which has had several owners including Texaco, made nuclear fuel from highly-enriched uranium for nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers for the US Navy from late 1967 to 1992.  It resumed production for the Navy in 1996 under a contract that extends through 2002.[cx]

In the period during which NFS was not under contract with the Navy, it developed and patented a process for downblending HEU, which it transferred to DOE as part of an exchange arrangement with the agency.  The company has also developed capabilities in dismantling and decontaminating nuclear facilities. 

NFS has carried out various downblending projects including downblending, in 1998, HEU scrap material from DOE for four lead assemblies for testing in TVA’s  Sequoyah-2 reactor.[cxi]  The test was successful.  Now NFS is helping to provide TVA with full reloads of fuel from downblended HEU.  

Under a contract with TVA, NFS will be responsible for converting uranium-aluminum alloy and highly-enriched uranium metal into low-enriched uranyl nitrate solution.  For this purpose NFS will set up a new processing operation inside an existing building at Erwin.  NFS, together with Framatome ANP Richland, will also be responsible for converting low-enriched uranyl nitrate solution, from the NFS facility and from Savanna River, to low-enriched uranium oxide. To perform this step, NFS and Framatome ANP will construct at Erwin another new facility, which is scheduled to go into operation in late 2003.[cxii]

NFS fabricated MOX fuel from 1965-1972.[cxiii]  As a result, NFS is a member of the team that will help provide MOX fuel fabrication and reactor irradiation services for DOE’s plutonium disposition program (See above, under Mox Fuel Fabrication Facility).[cxiv]

Savanna River Site

Purpose:  originally, the production of nuclear materials for weapons; today, management of these materials and radioactive wastes

Location:  twelve miles south of Aiken, South Carolina

Owner:  US Department of Energy

Period of operation:  1952-[cxv]

            As of November 2000, a downblending facility was under construction at the Savanna River site.[cxvi]  The facility will downblend at least 16 tons of slightly contaminated or off-specification HEU to be used in low-enriched uranium fuel for the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Sequoyah, Brown’s Ferry, and, possibly, Watts Barr plants.[cxvii]

            The F area at the plant is the likely site of a MOX production facility (See MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility above). 

VI. NUCLEAR REACTORS

(See Appendix 2)

VII.  WASTE DISPOSAL

VII.A.  “Low-level” waste

Envirocare

Purpose:  disposal of  radioactive waste

Location:  Utah’s West Desert, approximately 80 miles west of Salt Lake City

Owner:  Envirocare of Utah, Inc., owned by Khosrow Semnani[cxviii]

Period of operation: 1988-

Nominal capacity:  15 million cubic yards.[cxix]

Current storage: ?[cxx]

            Envirocare’s first license was for the disposal of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM).  Projects involving large volumes of contaminated soils are still its primary focus, but it can now also dispose of certain other types of materials, including various Class A low-level radioactive wastes, byproduct material, and mixed waste (waste that is radioactive and chemically toxic).  Envirocare treats mixed waste in special facilities before storing it. A stabilization facility, using reduction/oxidation, is authorized to treat 150 tons of material per day.  Waste is disposed of in “above-ground, engineered disposal cells.”[cxxi]    

Barnwell Waste Management Facility

Purpose:  disposal of radioactive waste

Location:  235 acres in Barnwell County, South Carolina

Owner: State of South Carolina

Operator:  Chem-Nuclear Systems L.L.C. (GTS Duratek, Inc.100%)[cxxii]

Period of operation:  1971- (but temporarily closed in 1994)[cxxiii]

Nominal capacity:  “disposal volume” of 31 million cubic feet

Current storage:  as of mid- 2001, 28 million cubic feet of waste stored.[cxxiv]

            Chem-Nuclear receives A, B, and C low-level waste for disposal.<