ML25184A157
| ML25184A157 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 07007038 |
| Issue date: | 07/08/2025 |
| From: | Osiris Siurano-Perez NRC/NMSS/DFM/FFLB |
| To: | Lav S NRC/NMSS/DFM/FFLB |
| References | |
| EPID L-2024-NEW-0007 | |
| Download: ML25184A157 (1) | |
Text
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 MEMORANDUM TO: Samantha Lav, Chief Fuel Facility Licensing Branch Division of Fuel Management Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards FROM: Osiris Siurano-Pérez, Project Manager Fuel Facility Licensing Branch Division of Fuel Management Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
SUBJECT:
SUMMARY
OF APRIL 24, 2025, PARTIALLY CLOSED MEETING WITH ORANO ENRICHMENT USA, LLC On April 24, 2025, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff held a hybrid, partially closed meeting with representatives from Orano Enrichment USA, LLC (Orano), to continue discussions regarding Oranos plans for submitting an application to the NRC for a Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 70, "Domestic Licensing of Special Nuclear Material,"
special nuclear materials license the construction and operation of Project IKE, a uranium enrichment facility to be located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss electrical distribution and instrumentation and controls for the facility.
I am enclosing the summary of the meeting for your use. The summary contains no proprietary or sensitive information. Orano staff reviewed this summary for factual correctness.
Docket No. 07007038 EPID No. L-2024-NEW-0007
Enclosure:
1.
Summary of Partially Closed Meeting with Orano Enrichment USA, LLC, Discuss Electrical Distribution and Instrumentation and Controls cc: Peter Vescovi, Orano USA CONTACT: Osiris Siurano-Pérez, NMSS/DFM 301-415-7827 July 8, 2025 Signed by Siurano-Perez, Osiris on 07/08/25
ML25184A157 OFFICE NMSS/DFM/FFLB NMSS/DFM/FFLB NMSS/DFM/FFLB NMSS/DFM/FFLB NAME OSiurano-Pérez JGoodridge LRegner for SLav OSiurano-Pérez DATE 07/03/25 07/07/25 07/08/25 07/08/25
Enclosure Summary of Partially Closed Meeting with Orano Enrichment USA, LLC Electrical Distribution and Instrumentation and Controls Date and Time:
April 24, 2025, 9:50 AM - 12:30 PM Call
Participants:
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Samantha Lav Ming Li Kimyata Morgan-Butler Osiris Siurano-Pérez Diana Woodyatt Orano Enrichment USA, LLC (Orano)
David Anderson Lionel Antognelli Faris Badwan Dana Kim Matthew Lang Brian Mekdeci Peter Vescovi Virtual David Rahn, NRC Gilberto Blas, NRC Anne Haluska, Orano Mary H Miller, Dominion Energy Paul Tiao, Orano Spencer Toohill, public Jenny Weil, public Summary of Discussions Open portion On April 24, 2025, the NRC staff from the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards held a partially closed meeting with representatives from Orano, to continue pre-application discussions regarding the upcoming submittal of a license application for Oranos Project IKE, a new uranium enrichment facility, to be located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Following opening remarks by the NRC staff and Orano representatives, Orano opened the discussions by discussing the purpose of the meeting, which was to discuss electrical distribution and instrumentation and controls (I&C) design, implementation, and maintenance aspects for the facility. Orano continued its presentation providing an overview of Orano USA, a world leader supplier for fuel cycle activities including advanced reactor services, nuclear fuel materials, spent fuel management, decontamination and decommissioning, among others.
Orano representatives noted that Orano Enrichment USA LLC is a business unit of Orano USA
2 based in Bethesda, Maryland, and was created to build, commission, and operate the chemistry and enrichment facilities in the U.S.
Following this discussion, Orano briefly discussed its plans for submitting a bifurcated application for Project IKE to the NRC which include submitting the required environmental report by late 2025, which Orano is actively preparing, and the safety and safeguards discussion portion of the application by early 2026. Later in 2026 Orano plans to start preparing the site, followed by the start of construction activities and, by sometime in 2031, start operations. Orano expects the NRC to be issuing the license for the facility by late 2027. Orano stated that it is leveraging its experience in operating its Georges Besse II (GBII) plant in France and the NRC licensing process for the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility (EREF) in the early 2000s and noted that the GBII facility is currently undergoing a capacity expansion at the same time Oranos plans for enrichment in the U.S. are moving forward.
After discussing its enrichment plans in the U.S., Orano discussed the objectives for the meeting, which included discussion of the design criteria for electrical power supply and for I&C for the IKE facility. Introduction of the Orano participants followed. Orano noted that the company staff participating at the meeting were those currently leading the activities regarding electrical distribution and I&C for the IKE facility.
After the introduction of the Orano participants, Orano concluded its presentation. A brief questions and answers (Q&A) session between the NRC staff and Orano was conducted.
During the session, Orano provided responses to the NRC staff general questions regarding Oranos plans for the IKE facility, including how the Project IKE plans and facility operations would compare to those for the EREF, and other technical questions regarding electrical distribution and I&C.
Following the NRC and Orano Q&A session, the public was afforded an opportunity to provide comments or ask questions to the NRC staff. A member of the public asked about whether the NRC will, and what criteria would be used to, evaluate human factors associated with transition from analog to digital systems. Orano representatives clarified that it was not their intention to transition their system from analog to digital but that their interest was mostly on understanding how modernization of the NRCs I&C regulatory infrastructure for transition from analog to digital systems may affect fuel cycle facility design of items relied on for safety (IROFS). The NRC staff further clarified that human factors will be evaluated during the review of Oranos application, and that the NRC staff will be mainly following the guidance in NUREG-1520, Standard Review Plan for Fuel Cycle Facilities License Applications, for conducting the review of Oranos application including evaluation of human factors. There were no additional questions from members of the public.
Following the public participation session, the NRC staff and Orano representatives provided their closing remarks, after which, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 10:25 AM. No regulatory decisions were made during the meeting.
Closed portion Following introductory remarks by the NRC staff, the discussion was turned over to Orano to proceed with their presentation. A question from the NRC staff was asked regarding the facilitys design and how it was developed. Orano stated that it currently has a team of people working on it and generally discussed the schedule, and scope, for this work. Orano stated that it plans
3 to complete the preliminary facility design by 2026. Following this phase, Orano plans to use a contractor to manage procurement, construction, and up to the startup activities.
Orano then proceeded to discuss its electrical distribution system design for the facility and its safety features. Orano provided responses to the NRC staff questions arising during the discussions and provided clarification to the information provided when requested by the NRC staff. Orano stated that the design is still being worked and that it was just presenting preliminary ideas on what the system would consist of. Orano further stated that the preliminary design and system ideas are based on that for the EREF. Orano restated that it will leverage as much as possible on the experience with the EREF and apply it to the IKE facility to facilitate the NRC review of the application and ensure Oranos plans and design for the facility are approved and that potential issues are kept to a minimum. Orano also stated that they will analyze codes and standards that may have been updated since the EREF license was terminated to ensure that the IKE facility meets these. Orano representatives also stated that they reviewed the NRC staffs requests for additional information (RAIs) and the licensee responses to those RAIs that were generated during the staffs evaluation of the EREF facility.
A short discussion on classified networks, cybersecurity, and facility secure internal communications was held. The NRC staff noted that classified networks will no longer be evaluated against the U.S. Department of Energys standards, as it was done during the licensing review for the EREF, but that these will now be evaluated against new NRC standards.
With regards to cybersecurity, it was noted that, currently, there are no NRC requirements or criteria for evaluating this matter but that a good facility design should consider this as part of their security program, which Orano representatives agreed upon and stated that this is also being considered as part of the IKE facilitys design process.
Orano proceeded to generally discuss its process control systems and equipment, how will these systems work, and provided responses to the NRC staff questions on this matter. Orano also reiterated its statement that they did not intend to employ a distributed digital safety system for the control of IROFS but would endeavor to use analog devices for its IROFS.
A brief discussion on Oranos IROFS plans for the facility was held. Orano stated that it will establish the IROFS based on the potential hazards and potential accident scenarios evaluated through the Integrated Safety Analysis that it is conducting for Project IKE. Orano finalized this portion of the discussions stating that it will follow the NRC Digital Instrumentation and Control interim staff guidance 07, Guidance for Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems in Safety Applications at Fuel Cycle Facilities, for developing its digital instrumentation for the proposed enrichment plant. With this discussion, Orano concluded its presentation to the NRC staff.
A brief discussion on the action items resulting from the meeting was held. The following items were identified for the NRC staffs action:
Provide Orano information on the requirements for establishing a classified computer network and construction of a secure room, including whether a Q clearance is necessary to set these up Provide Orano information on the design criteria and requirements for implementing digital and I&C in nuclear fuel facilities Provide Orano additional information on the security requirements for a uranium enrichment facility and set up a pre-application meeting to discuss.
4 A short discussion on plans for the next pre-application meeting was held. The NRC staff will be coordinating with Orano to set it up for the end of the first week of June. Discussion topics for that meeting will include information, cyber, and physical security.
A short discussion on the separative working units to be produced by the IKE facility in comparison to what was planned by the EREF was held. Orano stated that detailed information on this matter will be included in the license application for the NRC staff to review.
Oranos designation by the NRC as its non-Federal representative to conduct informal consultation under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, for Project IKE was briefly discussed. The NRC notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the designation via electronic communication dated April 9, 2025. A meeting to further discuss this designation with Orano will be conducted shortly.
There was a brief discussion on the use of an online portal for providing authorized NRC staff and contractors limited, read-only, access to certain materials owned by, and under the control of, Orano Enrichment USA, LLC. A formal agreement will be established between Orano and the NRC for setting up and using the portal. There was a short discussion about the type of information that could be exchanged through the portal. Orano further requested specific information about exchanging Export Control Information (ECI) through the portal. The NRC staff provided information on the types of information that can and cannot be shared through the portal and stated that it will get and provide information on how ECI should be handled at a later time.
Following this discussion, the meeting was adjourned at around 12:30 PM.
PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTOR Osiris Siurano-Pérez