NRC Issues License For Laser Uranium Enrichment Plant

Posted by Unknown on Tuesday September 25, 2012 @05:22AM from the lasers-make-everything-better dept.

Six years after being conceived, and after three years of regulatory review, the NRC has issued the operating license for the first commercial SILEX facility. This is just the final step in the multi-year approval process. There is still, however, a chance that the tech won't make it far: concerns over proliferation (due to the much smaller waste stream vs other enrichment processes) may lead to the NRC exercising its right to mothball further commercialization of the technology. Anyone interested in the long approval process should check out the NRC licensing page.

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NRC bombs innovation by exabrial · 2012-09-25 05:36 · Score: 2, Interesting

Nuclear power is incredibly important... in 1000 years, do you really think we're going to power the world with windmills? And while we need a body like the NRC as a safety watchdog, they need to be a lot more efficient. Keeping 60 year old nuclear plants open because new designs take eons to approve is callous and stupid.

And honestly, proliferation should be a NRC concern. Give that to the DHS, they have nothing better to do.