[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 72 (Wednesday, April 15, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20180-20183]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2026-07319]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 70-3103; CEQ ID EAXX-429-00-000-1775693431; NRC-2026-1156]
Louisiana Energy Services, LLC, dba Urenco USA; National
Enrichment Facility; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No
Significant Impact
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice; issuance.
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[[Page 20181]]
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an
environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact
(FONSI) for an exemption request submitted by Louisiana Energy
Services, LLC (LES) also doing business as (dba) Urenco USA (UUSA),
that would allow UUSA, a general licensee (GL) and certificate of
compliance (CoC) user, to use a vendor's transportation package design
(CoC No. 9362) for transport of certain limited shipments of uranium
hexafluoride (UF6) up to 10 weight (wt.) percent enrichment
of uranium-235 (U-235), a higher enrichment than authorized in CoC No.
9362, Revision No. 5.
DATES: The EA and FONSI referenced in this document are available on
April 15, 2026.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2026-1156 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may obtain publicly available information related to this document
using any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2026-1156. Address
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Bridget Curran;
telephone: 301-415-1003; email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individual(s) listed in the For Further
Information Contact section of this document.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``Begin ADAMS Public Search.''
For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room
(PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, or by email
to [email protected]. For the convenience of the reader,
instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are
provided in the ``Availability of Documents'' section.
NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies
of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an
appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8
a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except
Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Daneira Mel[eacute]ndez Col[oacute]n,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-
7295; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The NRC is reviewing an exemption request from LES, also dba UUSA,
dated October 8, 2025, and supplemented on December 16, 2025, and
February 4, 2026. Urenco USA is requesting an exemption, pursuant to
section 71.12 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR),
of paragraphs 71.17(c)(2) and 71.17(c)(3), that require UUSA to comply
with the terms and conditions of CoC No. 9362 and submit in writing
before the first use of the package. If approved, the exemption would
allow UUSA to use 30B cylinders within certified DN30 transportation
packages (i.e., CoC No. 9362) for domestic transport of UF6
enriched to greater than 5 but less than 10 wt. percent U-235.
Currently, CoC No. 9362, Revision No. 5, allows for transport of
UF6 with U-235 mass percentage not to exceed 5 wt. percent.
II. Environmental Assessment
Description of the Proposed Action
The proposed action would authorize UUSA, a general licensee and
CoC user, to use 30B cylinders within certified DN30 transportation
packages (i.e., transportation package system) for domestic transport
of certain limited shipments of UF6 at an enrichment of
greater than 5, but less than 10 wt. percent U-235. Urenco USA is
currently a registered user of the DN30 transportation package. At this
time the CoC for the DN30 transportation package contents is limited to
5 wt. percent U-235 (CoC No. 9362, Revision No. 5). No physical or
design changes to the DN30 transportation package are proposed in this
exemption. The proposed exemption would be limited to using
approximately 40 to 50 cylinders in 2026-2027 for shipment of
UF6 to a single customer.
The CoC is the NRC approved design for each transportation package
system. The proposed action would exempt the applicant from the
requirements of 10 CFR 71.17(c)(2) and 71.17(c)(3) only as these
requirements pertain to the use of the 30B cylinder within the DN30
transportation package. The exemption would allow UUSA to use the DN30
transportation package with this content, despite not being in
compliance with the terms and conditions in CoC No. 9362.
The proposed action is in accordance with UUSA exemption request
dated October 8, 2025, as supplemented by letters dated December 16,
2025, and February 4, 2026.
Need for the Proposed Action
The nuclear industry is currently pursuing fuels with slightly
increased enrichments for reactors in order to support industry
initiatives, such as accident tolerant fuels and extended fuel cycle
fuel. Urenco USA and other nuclear facilities are pursuing advancements
in fuel and enrichment in concert with reactor designs that utilize
high-essay low-enriched uranium (HALEU); that is, fuels with
enrichments greater than 5 but less than 20 wt. percent U-235, to
support these initiatives.
Although UUSA's license (SNM-2010) permits enrichment of
UF6 up to less than 10 wt. percent U-235, the material must
still be packaged for transport to the fuel fabricators and reactor
operators. Currently, there is only one approved UF6
transportation package for commercial HALEU quantities--the Orano NCS
GmbH Model No. DN30-X (CoC No. 9388). The DN30-X transportation package
consists of the DN30 packaging and the 30B-X UF6 cylinder.
The ``X'' in DN30-X and 30B-X is either replaced by ``10'' or by ``20''
to refer to a specific design for a maximum enrichment of 10 or 20
percent by weight U-235, respectively. Urenco USA has supported testing
of the prototypes and ordered 30B-10 cylinders, but manufacturing of
this approved transportation package has not yet occurred. With ANSI
(American National Standards Institute) N14.1 standard updates and
facility implementation still pending, UUSA is not certain when the new
transportation package approved for HALEU fuel contents will be
available. Given that UUSA has contracted HALEU orders that will need
shipping, this has created a business risk. To address this risk, in
the meantime, while awaiting the manufacturing of the newly approved
transportation package (i.e., DN30-X) that will allow up to 10 wt.
percent U-235, UUSA requested regulatory approval to use 30B cylinders
within the DN30 transportation package for domestic HALEU delivery,
limited to use approximately 40 to 50 cylinders in 2026-2027 for
shipment to a single customer.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action
This EA evaluates the potential environmental impacts of granting
an exemption from certain terms and conditions in CoC No. 9362. The
exemption would allow UUSA to use 30B cylinders within certified DN30
[[Page 20182]]
transportation packages for domestic transport of UF6
enriched to greater than 5, but less than 10 wt. percent U-235. This
exemption would be limited to using approximately 40 to 50 cylinders in
2026-2027 to deliver UF6 to a single customer.
The potential environmental impacts of transporting radioactive
material pursuant to 10 CFR part 71 was initially published in 1977 as
NUREG-0170, ``Final Environmental Statement on the Transportation of
Radioactive Material by Air and Other Modes'' for the Proposed Rule to
amend 10 CFR part 71. The Commission concluded that impacts from the
transportation of radioactive material are small. As such, a
categorical exclusion for transportation package approvals is given in
10 CFR 51.22(c)(13), ``Approval of package designs for packages to be
used for the transportation of licensed materials.'' The categorical
exclusion provided in NRC's environmental regulations, however, is
specific to package approvals and does not apply to requests for
exemption from those approvals. Therefore, the NRC has prepared an
environmental assessment in support of the exemption request and, in
doing so, is tiering off this ``Final Environmental Statement.''
Certificates of compliance approving package designs for packages
to be used in the transportation of radioactive materials are issued
upon demonstration that the package designs meet applicable performance
standards contained in part 71 of the Commission's regulations.
NUREG-0170 determined that the principal unavoidable environmental
effect of transport of radioactive material was found to be population
exposure resulting from normal transport of radioactive materials. As
part of the review of this exemption request, the NRC staff concluded
by evaluation of dose rate calculations submitted with the application
that any radiation exposure from the transport of UF6,
enriched to greater than 5, but less than 10 wt. percent U-235,
utilizing 30B cylinders within certified DN30 transportation packages
to the public or workers will not exceed regulatory limits under normal
or hypothetical accident conditions during shipment. Any radiological
or non-radiological environmental impacts of transporting
UF6, enriched to greater than 5, but less than 10 wt.
percent U-235, utilizing 30B cylinders within certified DN30
transportation packages would be no greater than those already
evaluated for the transport of UF6 and would be bounded by
the previous environmental analysis (NUREG-0170).
In addition, the staff reviewed the applicant's criticality
analyses of the DN30 transportation package containing 30B cylinders
with UF6 enrichments up to 10 wt. percent U-235. The
applicant showed and the staff agrees that single DN30 transportation
packages and arrays of packages containing 30B cylinders with
UF6 enrichments up to 10 wt. percent U-235 will be
adequately subcritical, considering the conservatism present in the
applicant's analysis, the reduction of allowable UF6 mass
per 30B cylinder, the benchmarking analysis for determining the upper
subcritical limit, and the limited duration and number of shipments
that are requested in this exemption. Additionally, the staff agrees
that the applicant's calculated critical safety index, based on their
normal conditions of transport and hypothetical accident conditions
package array analysis, is acceptable. As such, the staff finds with
reasonable assurance that the package, with the requested contents,
will meet the criticality safety requirements of 10 CFR part 71.
Therefore, the staff has determined that there will be no
significant environmental impacts as a result of approving the
exemption for the use of 30B cylinders within certified DN30
transportation packages for transport of certain limited shipments of
UF6 at an enrichment of greater than 5, but less than 10 wt.
percent U-235. The staff confirmed that no physical or design changes
to the DN30 transportation package are proposed in this exemption and
that the exemption is limited to the use of approximately 40 to 50
cylinders in 2026-2027 for shipment to a single customer. The staff
concluded by evaluation of dose rate and criticality calculations
submitted with the application that the package design meets applicable
performance standards contained in part 71 of the Commission's
regulations. Any radiological or non-radiological environmental impacts
of transporting UF6, enriched to greater than 5, but less
than 10 wt. percent U-235, utilizing 30B cylinders within certified
DN30 transportation packages would be no greater than those already
evaluated and would be bounded by the previous environmental analysis
(NUREG-0170).
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
As an alternative to the proposed action, the staff considered
denial of the proposed exemption request (i.e., the ``no-action''
alternative). The potential environmental impacts of denying the
request would be unchanged from the current impacts of using 30B
cylinders within certified DN30 transportation packages for transport
of UF6 at an enrichment of up to 5 wt. percent U-235. Under
this alternative, UUSA would need to identify another way to transport
HALEU product to the customer, and this alternative shipment
arrangement would result in similar environmental impacts.
Agencies and Persons Consulted
In accordance with NRC policy, on March 20, 2026, the NRC staff
provided a draft of the EA to the State of New Mexico and the State of
Washington for review. The NRC received a comment from the State of New
Mexico on April 8, 2026, after the close of the comment period. The
comment did not result in a change to the staff's assessment of
potential environmental impacts of the proposed action. The staff
responded separately to ensure the stakeholder received clear and
complete closure. No comments were received from the State of
Washington.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact
The environmental impacts of the proposed action have been reviewed
in accordance with the requirements in 10 CFR part 51, which are the
NRC's NEPA implementing regulations. Based upon the foregoing
environmental assessment, the NRC finds that the proposed action of
granting the exemption for the regulation in 10 CFR 71.17(c)(2) and
71.17(c)(3), which require the GL and CoC user to comply with the terms
and conditions of the CoC and submit in writing before the first use of
the package, in this particular case limited to the use of
approximately 40 to 50 30B cylinders of HALEU in calendar years 2026
through 2027 for shipment to a single customer, would not significantly
impact the quality of the human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has
determined that a FONSI is appropriate, and an environmental impact
statement is not warranted.
IV. Availability of Documents
The documents identified in the following table are available to
interested persons through one or more of the following methods, as
indicated.
[[Page 20183]]
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ADAMS accession No./
Document description Federal Register citation
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Louisiana Energy Services, LLC, also dba ML25281A317.
Urenco USA, exemption request, dated
October 8, 2025.
Supplements to request for exemption, dated ML25350C350.
December 16, 2025, and February 4, 2026. ML26035A335.
NUREG-0170, Final Environmental Statement ML022590355 (Package).
on the Transportation of Radioactive ML022590370.
Material by Air and Other Modes, Volumes 1
and 2, December 1977.
Final Rule--51.22(c)(13)................... 49 FR 9352, at 9368.
Certificate of Compliance No. 9362, ML24159A018 (Package).
Revision No. 5, dated June 11, 2024.
NRC email to State of New Mexico, ``Request ML26098A002.
for State comments regarding an
environmental assessment--Urenco USA,''
dated March 20, 2026.
NRC email to State of Washington, ``Request ML26098A001.
for State comments regarding an
environmental assessment--Urenco USA,''
dated March 20, 2026.
State of New Mexico email to NRC, ``Re: ML26099A018.
Request for State comments regarding an
environmental assessment--Urenco USA,''
dated April 8, 2026.
NRC Response to comment from State of New ML26100A208.
Mexico, ``Response to comment re: Request
for State comments regarding and
environmental assessment--Urenco USA,''
dated April 10, 2026.
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Dated: April 13, 2026.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Yoira Diaz-Sanabria,
Chief, Storage and Transportation Licensing Branch, Division of Fuel
Management, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2026-07319 Filed 4-14-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P