ML19290H611

Letter from NRC Secretary, Annette Vietti-Cook, to Sven Van Den Berghe and Eric Van Walle of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre

ML19290H611
Person / Time
Site:	11006361
Issue date:	10/17/2019
From:	Annette Vietti-Cook NRC/SECY
To:	Van Walle E, Van Den Berghe S Govt of Belgium, Belgian Nuclear Research Center
SECY RAS
References
Export License Application, RAS 55372, DOE Export License - 11006361
Download: ML19290H611 (4)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON , D.C. 20555-0001 October 17, 2019 SECRETARY Mr. Sven Van den Berghe NMS Institute Director Belgian Nuclear Research Centre Avenue Hermann-Debrouxlaan 40-BE-1160 Brussels Belgium Mr. Eric van Walle Director-General Belgian Nuclear Research Centre Avenue Hermann-Debrouxlaan 40-BE-1160 Brussels Belgium

Dear Messrs. Van den Berghe and van Walle :

On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am responding to your letter of October 3, 2019, to Chairman Svinicki regarding the Export License Application of the U.S.

Department of Energy (DOE) (Docket No. 11006361 ). In your letter, you offer your response to statements made by Curium LLC regarding operation of your BR2 reactor in their petition for a hearing on the export license application.

Because your letter bears on a proceeding pending before the Commission, it would be inappropriate for the Chairman to discuss the matter at this time. This is because the Commission must remain impartial during the pendency of the proceeding.

A copy of your letter and this response will be served on the participants in the DOE Export License Application proceeding.

Sincerely, Annette L. Vietti-Cook

STUDIECENTRUM VOOR KERNENERGIE CENTRE D'ETUDE DE L'ENERGIE NUCLEAIRE Chairman Kristine L. Svinicki U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Eric van Walle Mail Stop 0-16833

• Washington DC 20555 Director-General United States of America tel.: +32 14 33 25 90 eric.van.walle@sckcen.be your message from your reference our reference Mol SCK*CEN/35398262 2019-10-03 2019-34_NMS-SVdB Reaction to the false statements in the CURIUM petition opposing the IRE export license request

Dear Sir,

It is with great disbelief and concern that the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK*CEN has learned that CURIUM LLC wrongly states in its petition for a hearing regarding the export license request of IRE (Docket No. 110-06361), dated September 13, 2019, that our BR2 reactor was recently fueled with Russian fuel. The statement was signed by Roy Brown (VP of Government Affairs and Strategic Alliances at CURIUM LLC).

The lack of verification effort put into this statement, which would have been easy to prove false, obviously casts serious doubt on the level of rigor which went into drawing up the petition.

Although we fail to understand the relevance to claim that BR2 is using Russian (HEU) fuel, quod non, in a petition opposing IRE's export license request, it is our concern that such a statement could cast doubts on the long standing and fruitful collaboration of SCK*CEN and more broadly Belgium with the United States, on our shared commitment to minimize the use of HEU when technically and economically feasible and on our commitment to assist other research reactors in the United States and in Europe to convert to LEU in a timely manner, while always giving appropriate priority to the security of medical radioisotopes supply to

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~u the United States, Europe and the world. We are furthermore concerned the false statement could

is potentially negatively impact any future export license request we expect to submit to fuel the BR2 reactor 6:. as we complete our conversion program. SCK*CEN therefore has also duly informed the Belgian 0

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government of the erroneous claims in the petition.

~C 5 We would thus like the official record to show that BR2 is the only nuclear reactor in the Mo-99 production u.

4J fleet for CURIUM and IRE, that is currently and has always been fueled with US-origin fissile materials and j5 US and European produced fuel assemblies since its first criticality in 1962. SCK*CEN has been, is and will a.

• 4J continue to be committed to put the patients first by helping to secure the global supply of me_ dical

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radioisotopes, as we consistently have done in the past, even in priority to our own research activities.

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Yours sincerely,

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Sven Van den Berghe I Eric van Walle en C NMS Institute Director Director-General

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Maatschappelijke Zetel - Siege Social - Registered Office: avenue Herrmann-Debrouxlaan 40 - BE-1160 BRUSSEL- BRUXELLES- BRUSSELS www.sckcen.be Exploitatiezetel - Siege d'Exploitation - Operational Office: Boeretang 200 - BE-2400 MOL tel..+ 32 2 66119 51 fax:+ 32 2 661 19 58 BTW - ,YA - VAT: BE 406 568 867 tel + 32 14 33 2111 fax:+ 32 14 31 50 21 K80 - BCE - C8E: 0406 568 867

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of )

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ) Docket No. 11006361

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) License No. XSNM3810 (Export of 93.35% Enriched Uranium) )

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of the foregoing Letter from NRC Secretary, Annette Vietti-Cook, to Sven Van den Berghe and Eric van Walle of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre have been served upon the following persons by Electronic Information Exchange or, as indicated by an asterisk, by electronic mail.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Becky Eddy Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication Department of Energy Mail Stop: O-16B33 301 Bear Creek Road, JCC N3.168 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Oak Ridge, TN 37831 E-mail: ocaamail@nrc.gov E-mail: becky.eddy@npo.doe.gov U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Counsel for Curium US LLC Office of the Secretary of the Commission Sachin Desai, Esq.

Mail Stop: O-16B33 Amy C. Roma, Esq.

Washington, DC 20555-0001 Hogan Lovells US LLP E-mail: hearingdocket@nrc.gov 555 13th Street NW Washington D.C., 20004 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission E-mail: sachin.desai@hoganlovells.com Office of the General Counsel amy.roma@hoganlovells.com Mail Stop O-14A44 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Steve Merrick Grace Kim, Esq. President and Chief Executive Officer Nicolas Mertz, Esq. NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC Carrie Safford, Esq. 1800 Gateway Blvd.

E-mail: grace.kim@nrc.gov Beloit, WI 53511 nicolas.mertz@nrc.gov carrie.safford@nrc.gov Counsel for NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC Samantha Dorsey, Esq.

Lisa D. Kenna*, Executive Secretary Broydrick and Associates Department of State 1150 Connecticut Ave, NW, Ste. 615 2201 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 Washington, DC 20520 E-mail: samantha@broydrick.com E-mail: sarkiss@state.gov ISN-NESS-DL@state.gov ISN-FO-Staff-Assistants-DL@state.gov

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (Docket No. 11006361)

Letter from NRC Secretary, Annette Vietti-Cook, to Sven Van den Berghe and Eric van Walle of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre Laura S. H. Holgate Nuclear Threat Initiative 1776 Eye Street, NW Washington D.C. 20004 E-mail: holgate@nti.org Alan Kuperman, Ph.D.

University of Texas at Austin PO Box Y Austin, TX 78713 E-mail: akuperman@mail.utexas.edu

[Original signed by Herald M. Speiser ]

Office of the Secretary of the Commission Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 17th day of October 2019 2