Based upon NRC’s projection of the administrative and technical review schedules, they anticipate completing the license review and issuing the license Safety Evaluation report and Environmental Impact Statement documents by January 2012. NRC also said, however, that this date could change depending on budget and resource constraints, the findings of their technical review, or other factors.
The company said that the de-conversion facility is a first of its kind commercial nuclear installation and the licensing requirements for such a facility were not clearly defined. The company had to communicate frequently with the NRC to define the regulatory requirements in order to permit it to prepare an application that would meet present, as well as future anticipated, regulatory requirements for combined fuel cycle and uranium processing facilities.
The company quoted the NRC letter as stating, “We have received [the INIS] application, including an Environmental Report and an Integrated Safety Analysis Summary, dated December 30, 2009, to possess and use source and by-product material at the proposed International Isotopes Fluorine Products, Inc. (IIFP) facility…[and]… have determined the application to be acceptable for formal review.”
Steve Laflin, president and CEO of International Isotopes, said: “We are very pleased with the NRC’s prompt acceptance of the license application and credit our excellent staff and subcontractor support for the preparation of a high quality license application document.”
