NRC to hold hearing on NC uranium enrichment plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants to hear the public's views about a North Carolina facility using confidential technology to test whether lasers can be used to enrich uranium.

The Star News of Wilmington reports the public hearing Thursday will talk about the NRC's recent safety evaluation and environmental impact report on the experiment in creation fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

The NRC is reviewing a licensing application for the GE-Hitachi Global Nuclear Fuels facility near Wilmington. Enriching uranium with lasers could create it cheaper to fuel nuclear power plants that generate electricity. Nuclear weapons control advocates fear that allowing companies to use the technology raises concerns it can fall into the wrong hands.

NRC fines GE-Hitatchi $45K over NC nuke test site

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy $45,000 for multiple security violation at a North Carolina facility using confidential technology to test whether lasers can be used to enrich uranium.

A redacted copy of an NRC violation letter provide to The Associated Press on Thursday following a Freedom of Information Act request said investigators recognized five violations including "a significant lack of management concentration Details of the violations described by the letter were blacked out by nuclear regulator before it was released to The AP, While some violations were "willful," "no actual consequences resulted," the NRC said.

The violations occupied a contractor's employee working at the GE-Hitachi's Global Nuclear Fuels facility near Wilmington, where the company is by means of top-secret technology to find out whether lasers can effectively enrich uranium as an alternative of costlier centrifuges, company spokesman Christopher White said.