Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) has presented its Safety Analysis Report (SAR) for the planned Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This follows its submission in December of 2024 of the Environmental Report. now completing GLE’s full license application has now been completed for NRC review.

GLE is seeking a license from the NRC for the Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF) to re-enrich depleted uranium tails from legacy Department of Energy (DOE) gaseous diffusion plant operations to provide a new source of domestic uranium, conversion, and enrichment production.

In August of last year, the NRC approved GLE’s request to separate the submittal of the Environmental Report (ER) and the SAR request. GLE said that the early submission of the ER was expected to “facilitate a more efficient and timely licensing review process”.

GLE submitted the ER to the NRC in late December of last year. The ER details the significant benefits of the project, including accelerating environmental cleanup efforts at the former Paducah gaseous diffusion plant through depleted uranium tails re-enrichment under a 2016 agreement between GLE and the Department of Energy. The project supports carbon emissions reduction by providing a new domestic source of uranium, conversion, and enriched uranium to existing and new nuclear reactors, job creation for West Kentucky, and energy security.

GLE has now submitted the SAR, which provides a comprehensive evaluation of the facility’s safety measures, operational protocols, and risk mitigation strategies, ensuring compliance with the NRC’s stringent regulatory standards for nuclear safety and security.

Stephen Long is the CEO of GLE. He said, “This achievement reflects the significant commitment, dedication, and ingenuity of our remarkably talented team, who worked to prepare and deliver a high-quality application in a very short timeframe, six months ahead of schedule. GLE’s unique capabilities position the PLEF as a potential single-site solution for U.S.-based uranium, conversion, and enrichment production.”

Timothy Knowles is the GLE Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Manager. He added, “We appreciate the extensive pre-application engagement with NRC staff, which helped inform our submission. We remain committed to working closely with the NRC to ensure a thorough, efficient, and expeditious review.”

The PLEF licensing effort follows GLE’s 2012 NRC-approved license for a commercial-scale laser enrichment facility in Wilmington, North Carolina. The 2012 project did not proceed due to poor market conditions at the time.

GLE said it anticipates an accelerated licensing timeline for the PLEF given the NRC’s prior approval and GLE’s well-characterized site. In November of 2024, GLE acquired six hundred and sixty-five acres adjacent to the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant for construction of the planned PLEF.

The company said it remains on track to start re-enriching the DOE’s Paducah inventory of depleted uranium tails no later than 2030.

GLE, a joint venture of Australian company Silex Systems (fifty one percent) and Cameco Corporation (forty nine percent) is the exclusive global licensee of the SILEX laser-based uranium enrichment technology, which would be deployed commercially at PLEF. The project is supported by a long-term agreement signed in 2016 for the sale to GLE of some two hundred thousand tons from the U.S. DoE inventory depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) for re-enrichment to equivalent natural grade uranium hexafluoride. The DoE currently has a large inventory of the material from the former operations of its first-generation gaseous diffusion enrichment plants.

Michael Goldsworthy is the Silex Systems CEO and Managing Director. He said, “GLE’s submittal of its SAR represents a major milestone in the commercialization of the SILEX technology, which will culminate in the establishment of the planned PLEF. We commend the GLE team for their excellent efforts in the submission of the full license application ahead of the original schedule, and look forward to an expeditious review by the NRC.”

Global Laser Enrichment

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Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745

Ambient office = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 1038 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 104 nanosieverts per hour

Green onion from Central Market = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 95 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Alexei Likhachev is the Rosatom Director General. He said that the first two new six-hundred-megawatt reactors planned for the second phase of the Kola Nuclear Power Plant will be built between 2027 to 2037.

During a visit to the Kola nuclear power plant in the Murmansk region of Russia, Likhachev said that Kola II would be the first to feature the new medium-powered units designed for deployment in isolated areas in Russia and other countries. He went on to say that a further two reactors with a service life of 80 years were planned for the site in the future.

Likhachev said, “Kola NPP-2 will be the first station with modern 600 MW medium-capacity units. The implementation of the project will allow for the confident development of the region’s economy and will open up opportunities for launching new industrial projects on its territory. The medium-capacity project is innovative and meets modern energy system requirements, including maneuverability requirements, which is especially important for regions with grid limitations, including the Kola Peninsula”.

In March of this year, Rosatom said that the new Kola II reactors would be VVER-S, and have the ability to participate in a closed nuclear fuel cycle with the use of uranium-plutonium fuel.

The VVER-S is a six-hundred-megawatt water-cooled reactor under development. The basic difference for VVER-S compared with other VVER reactors is in spectral regulation “of the change in the reactivity margin of the core during fuel burnout due to a change in the water-uranium ratio and the complete rejection of liquid boron regulation during reactor operation at power. In the VVER-S, excess neutrons, instead of being absorbed in boric acid, are absorbed by uranium-238”. This produces plutonium, a new fissile fuel.

In Russia, MOX (mixed oxide) nuclear fuel is currently produced for fast neutron reactors, notably the BN-800 fast reactor at Beloyarsk. MOX fuel is manufactured from plutonium recycled from used reactor fuel, mixed with depleted uranium. Uranium-plutonium REMIX fuel has been developed for use in VVER reactors. Rosatom says that, if the proposed VVER-S reactors can use a full load of MOX fuel, it will cut its use of natural uranium by fifty percent. With high uranium prices, over its lifetime, this could save about the same amount as the capital cost of a reactor.

The Kola nuclear power plant was the first plant to be built in the harsh climatic conditions of the Arctic. It provides a reliable energy supply to the northern part of the Republic of Karelia. This is where most of the region’s major industrial enterprises are located. It also provides energy to more than half of the consumers in the Kola Peninsula.

Rosatom said that a project planned to expand the outdoor switchgear consisting of a third 330kV line and substations will increase electricity consumption in the north of the peninsula. This is required because of the construction of a liquefied gas plant. This construction is due to be completed by the end of 2029.

There have been various plans for new capacity at Kola, with World Nuclear Association saying that in 2012 the replacement plant, about six miles from the existing site, was due to feature two VVER-TOI reactors. However, in June 2021 the plant management announced that the plan was for construction to begin in 2028 for two VVER-S six hundred megawatt reactors, with the first to be online in 2034. The ‘S’ in the name signifies spectral shift control, with heavy water in the primary coolant. Russia’s future energy development plan released in 2024 included three proposed VVER-S/600 units at the Kola II site between 2035 and 2040,

The Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear corporation says that the medium-power reactors will mean there is a full range of options for reactors, from small modular reactors to large-scale VVER-1200 units.

Kola Nuclear Power Plant

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Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745

Ambient office = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water 97 nanosieverts per hour

Campari tomato from Central Market = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 97 nanosieverts per hour

U.K.-based Rolls-Royce SMR is majority-owned by Rolls-Royce. It has been selected by the U.K.’s Great British Energy – Nuclear to develop a new fleet of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). This is part of a three billion four hundred-million-dollar initiative that the U.K. government says will “bolster energy security, create jobs and reduce carbon emissions.”

The project could also create a lucrative opportunity for industrial gas suppliers, especially those providing high-purity nitrogen, argon, helium, and uranium hexafluoride.

The chosen SMR design utilizes enriched uranium fuel and complex fabrication processes. These features rely on various gases across the nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium conversion to fuel rod integrity testing.

Uranium enrichment involves converting uranium oxide into uranium hexafluoride (UF₆), which is then heated to form a gas. The gas is then fed into centrifuges. These centrifuges separate uranium isotopes, increasing the proportion of fissile U-235 to that required for fuel. The enriched uranium is then condensed and prepared for fuel fabrication.

While uranium enrichment occurs upstream and outside the U.K., the production and handling of UF₆ is critical to any increase in nuclear capacity. It is also highly regulated under various laws which are mainly focused on safe transport and storage.

The fabrication of nuclear fuel rods involves high-precision welding and testing which often requires an inert gas environment. Nitrogen is often used to prevent oxidation of fuel assemblies, while helium or argon can be used for

Rolls-Royce is scaling its SMR production over the four-year project. During the project, demand for these high-purity gases could increase, especially in the U.K. if local supply chains are developed.

Rolls-Royce SMRs are not helium-cooled (unlike some next-gen high-temperature gas-cooled reactors). However, helium is still used in testing and component validation phases. Any U.K.-based expansion of advanced reactor research and development could further impact helium demand and supply chains.

The localization feature of the SMR program suggests that domestic supply chains, including industrial gas suppliers, are likely to be favored. This was supported by U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, who said, “the UK is back where it belongs. We’re backing Britain … to ensure 70% of supply chain products are British built, delivering our plan for change through more jobs and putting more money in people’s pockets.”.

This could open up opportunities for U.K.-based gas cylinder manufacturers, purification firms, and specialty gas providers to align with the needs of the country’s nuclear power sector, which the Nuclear Industry Association values at twenty billion dollars.

It could also position Britain as a frontrunner in developing breakthrough technology for the global SMR market, projected to reach five hundred billion dollars by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency.

These developments support the U.K.’s desire to end what Energy Secretary Ed Miliband called the “no-nuclear status quo.” He added, “[We are] entering a golden age of nuclear [energy] with the biggest building program in a generation.”.

SMR development could also be critical to the U.K. reaching its decarbonization goals. Tom Greatex is the CEO of the UK’s Nuclear Industry Association. In 2022, he said, “nuclear is going to be the bedrock of our future mix to remove our reliance on volatile fossil fuels, and to back up renewables.”.

Currently, around fifteen percent of the U.K.’s electricity comes from nuclear, but the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) aims to expand this to twenty-four gigawatts by 2050, meeting roughly twenty five percent of the country’s power needs.

While the timeline for deploying the new SMRs extends into the 2030s, industrial gas companies which supply the nuclear sector may already be eyeing long-term contract opportunities. With nuclear power back on the U.K.’s strategic agenda, the industrial gases industry could have an important role to play enabling this part of the energy transition.

Great British Energy – Nuclear

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Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745

Ambient office = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 95 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 143 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 144 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 125 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)

The NRC has decided that a factory-fabricated microreactor loaded with fuel may be excluded from being considered to be “in operation” if it has features to prevent a nuclear chain reaction. A microreactor with features to prevent a chain reaction may be loaded with fuel at a factory if it is carried out under an NRC license that allows possession of the fuel. NRC staff may apply regulations for nonpower reactors to allow testing of a microreactor at a factory before it is shipped to an operating site.

The NRC said that it has also directed its staff “to continue other microreactor-related activities, such as engaging with Department of Energy/Defense efforts to build and operate microreactors on DoE/DoD sites or as part of critical national security infrastructure,”. The NRC added that the engagement “aims to identify and implement licensing process efficiencies, consistent with the ADVANCE Act and relevant executive orders, to streamline the transition of microreactor technology to the commercial sector.”.

Meanwhile, the NRC is currently down to four board members following Christopher Hanson’s announcement that his role at the regulator has been terminated on the orders of President Donald Trump. He said, “Late on Friday, President Trump terminated my position with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission without cause, contrary to existing law and longstanding precedent regarding removal of independent agency appointees. My focus over the last five years has been to prepare the agency for anticipated change in the energy sector, while preserving the independence, integrity, and bipartisan nature of the world’s gold standard nuclear safety institution. I continue to have full trust and confidence in their commitment to serve the American people by protecting public health and safety and the environment.”

The NRC is governed by five Commissioners who are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms. A chairman is chosen from the five Commissioners by the President. In 2024, the Senate renewed Hanson’s renomination for a five-year term ending in June 2029. David Wright was appointed by President Trump to be chair of the NRC on the 20^th of January this year, but his current term is due to expire at the end of this month. David Wright was nominated for a second term as an NRC commissioner in a list of presidential nominations which was sent to the US Senate, dated the 16^th of June.

The executive order on Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission which the President signed on the 23^rd of May this year calls for the regulator to be reorganized to promote “the expeditious processing of license applications and the adoption of innovative technology”, and undertaking “reductions in force” in conjunction with this reorganization”.

In reaction to Hanson’s departure, the American Nuclear Society said, “A competent, effective, and fully staffed U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is essential to the rapid deployment of new reactors and advanced technologies. The arbitrary removal of commissioners without due cause creates regulatory uncertainty that threatens to delay America’s nuclear energy expansion.”.

American Nuclear Society