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Louisiana Energy Services (LES) Gas Centrifuge FacilityThe LES partnership is currently owned entirely by Urenco. Exelon, Duke Power, and Entergy were previously partners in LES but dropped out of the partnership following the issuance of the license to LES to construct and operate a uranium enrichment facility. LES intends to use Urenco’s sixth generation gas centrifuge technology that is being used in Europe. Urenco has a capacity of about 20 percent of the world’s enrichment market. On this page:
For further information on the Louisiana Energy Services Gas Centrifuge Facility, contact us.
Regulation and LegislationIn 1990, Congress passed the Solar, Wind, Waste, and Geothermal Power Production Incentives Act. Among other things, this legislation amended the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to require licensing of uranium enrichment facilities under U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations in 10 CFR Parts 40 and 70. The act also stated that the construction and operation of a uranium enrichment facility is considered a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment for the purposes of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. Therefore, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) needs to be prepared for this type of facility. Under the legislation, an adjudicatory hearing on the licensing of the construction and operation is required. This hearing must be completed before issuance of a license. The act also requires the applicant to obtain public liability insurance for the facility and requires the NRC to inspect the facility before operations begin to ensure that the plant is constructed to meet the license requirements.
License ApplicationOn December 12, 2003, LES submitted a license application and environmental report to NRC for a proposed gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant. Full capacity of 3 million SWU/yr is currently projected for 2013, depending on market demand. On September 2, 2003, LES announced its site selection as Lea County, New Mexico. On January 30, 2004, the Commission issued an Order initiating the LES proceeding applicable to its application for a uranium enrichment plant. The Order offered an opportunity for a hearing, ordered the use of the new 10 CFR Part 2 hearing procedures and a 30-month licensing Review Schedule, and addressed several policy issues applicable to uranium enrichment facility licensing. On April 19, 2004, NRC provided the staff's initial technical review of the license application that identified a need for additional information. LES submitted its response to the Request for Additional Information (RAI) on May 19, 2004. A second RAI was sent to LES on April 29, 2004, concerning the preparation of an EIS for the proposed facility. LES submitted responses to the RAI regarding its environmental review on May 20, 2004, and June 10, 2004. On October 20, 2004, an RAI on the decommissioning funding plan was sent to LES. LES provided responses on December 10, 2004; January 7, 2005; March 3, 2005; March 29, 2005; and April 8, 2005. The March 29 and April 8 responses contain proprietary information. On January 28, 2005, an additional RAI on environmental impacts was sent to LES. LES responded to this request on February 11, 2005. The following is a list of the current effective revisions to the Safety Analysis Report and Environmental Report:
On June 23, 2006, NRC issued a license to LES to construct and operate a uranium enrichment facility. The license was issued following favorable hearing decisions by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
Safety Evaluation ReportOn December 12, 2003, Louisiana Energy Services submitted an application for a uranium enrichment facility. On June 15, 2005, the NRC staff completed its review of the application and documents the results in the Safety Evaluation Report for the National Enrichment Facility in Lea County, New Mexico, Louisiana Energy Services (NUREG-1827). The review evaluates the potential adverse impacts of facility operation on worker and public health and safety under both normal operating and accident conditions. The review also considers physical protection of special nuclear material (SNM) and classified matter, material control and accounting of SNM, and the management organization, administrative programs, and financial qualifications provided to ensure safe design and operation of the facility. The NRC staff concludes, in this Safety Evaluation Report, that the applicant's descriptions, specifications, and analyses provide an adequate basis for safety and safeguards of facility operations and that operation of the facility does not pose an undue risk to worker and public health and safety. NRC staff issued a Safety Evaluation Report Supplement on criticality safety issues on March 3, 2006. The supplement addressed issues related to the criticality safety validation report. NRC staff concluded that LES had adequately addressed the validation of its computer codes used in evaluating nuclear criticality safety issues. On April 6, 2006, NRC staff issued a Safety Evaluation Report Supplement on DOE’s cost estimate for the disposition of depleted uranium. NRC staff concluded that DOE’s cost estimate was reasonable and complied with its regulations. On May 16, 2006, NRC staff issued a Safety Evaluation Report Supplement on changes in the LES partnership agreement, whereby Urenco, the principle general partner, purchased the shares of Westinghouse Enrichment Company. NRC staff concluded that the change presented adequately described the corporate identity, structure, and financial information required under the regulations; that LES was financially qualified to build and operate the proposed facility; and that LES met the requirements for Foreign Ownership, Control, and Influence.
Environmental ReviewNRC develops, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), an Environmental Impact Statement for "major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment." Licensing a uranium enrichment facility is considered a "major Federal action," requiring an EIS. For more information about NEPA and the environmental review process, see Frequently Asked Questions About NRC's Role under the National Environmental Policy Act. The NRC staff held a public meeting on the scope of the EIS for the proposed National Enrichment Facility (NEF) to be constructed and operated by LES on March 4, 2004, in Eunice, New Mexico. The public was encouraged to provide comments on the NRC's scoping process. The NRC issued its draft EIS on September 17, 2004, for public comment. NRC staff held a public meeting on October 14, 2004, in Eunice, New Mexico, to provide an opportunity for the public to comment on the draft EIS. The public comment period closed on January 7, 2005. On June 15, 2005, the NRC staff issued Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed National Enrichment Facility in Lea County, New Mexico -- Final Report (NUREG-1790). In the final EIS, the staff analyzed the environmental impacts from the proposed NEF and determined that such impacts generally would be small to moderate. In preparing the final EIS, the staff addressed nearly 4200 comments on the draft EIS that were received from approximately 400 individuals.
Correspondence and Other Information
Some links on this page are to documents in our Agencywide
Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), and others are to documents
in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). ADAMS documents are provided in either
PDF or Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). To obtain free viewers for displaying
these formats, see our Plugins, Viewers, and
Other Tools page. If you have questions about search techniques or problems
with viewing or printing documents from ADAMS, please contact the Public
Document Room staff.
Public InvolvementMeeting ScheduleFor upcoming meetings, see our Public Meeting Schedule. Information for the meetings on this page are available at this Web site or in ADAMS if an accession number is given. Meeting Archive
Indirect Transfer of LicenseOn October 19, 2007, LES submitted a request for indirect transfer of license. In this request, LES proposes to: (1) restructure itself from a Limited Partnership to a Limited Liability Company; and (2) reorganize the ownership arrangement of Urenco Deelnemingen BV, a current partner of LES. No physical changes to the LES facility or operational changes are being proposed. On January 31, 2008, in accordance with 10 CFR 2.1 301 (b), NRC published a Federal Register notice on the consideration of the application and offering an opportunity to provide comments and petition for a hearing. No comments or petitions for a hearing were received. The following is a list of correspondence applicable to this licensing action:
Inspection ReportsTo ensure that LES complies with regulatory requirements, NRC staff conducts inspections of the facility. Inspections may be announced or unannounced. The following inspection reports have been prepared:
Related Information
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