By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced earlier this month that an Energy Department contractor hired to build a plutonium processing facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina still has a number of safety issues to address before construction can begin (see GSN, Dec. 6, 2002).

The U.S. company Duke Cogema Stone & Webster has not yet met all of the safety requirements for the construction of the mixed oxide fuel production plant to provide “reasonable assurance” of protection against natural disasters and accidents, the NRC said in a revised safety report prepared last month.  The report lists 19 safety issues, such as fire and chemical safety concerns, that the company must still address before the NRC will authorize construction of the MOX plant, which will work to reduce stockpiles of weapon-grade plutonium by converting it for use as fuel in civilian nuclear power plants. 

The revised NRC report represents a snapshot of the process to date and is based on information received since April 30, 2002, when the commission issued a draft safety report on Duke Cogema’s initial construction request (see GSN, May 9, 2002).  Since then, Duke Cogema has resolved 40 out of 59 safety items that had been raised in the 2002 report, the commission said in a press statement.

The NRC plans to issue a final revised safety report and to make a decision on Duke Cogema’s construction request by Sept. 30, commission spokesman David McIntyre told Global Security Newswire.  NRC and Duke Cogema representatives are scheduled to meet at the commission’s headquarters in Rockville, Md., May 28-30 and June 2-6 to discuss the remaining unresolved safety issues, he said.

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