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.

Russian firm buy U.S. uranium mine

A Russian company has won support to take over a U.S. uranium operation, including a whole town in Utah, an executive says. Citing national security, four associate of Congress had urged the U.S. Treasury to keep the Canadian Uranium One company from selling mass ownership to Atomredmetzoloto, whose parent entity is Rosatom, the Russian nuclear agency. One concern is that Rosatom has sent extremely radioactive reactor fuel to Iran. But the Treasury Department, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory charge and the Utah Division of Radiation Control have accepted the deal, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

"Uranium One has now conventional all necessary approvals," said Rob Buchanan, its head of investor relations, "and we are on track to close the deal before the end of the year." The Canadian company says U.S. possessions will be unaffected. They include the Utah town of Ticaboo near Lake Powell, the near Shootaring Canyon uranium mill and more than 10,000 acres of uranium claims in Utah, plus extra holdings in South Dakota, Wyoming and Texas. The Utah agency said it go along based on Uranium One's assurance that there would be no change in operations.