Urenco USA, Louisiana, EA for UF6 Transport Exemption at 10 wt% Enrichment

Content

ACTION:

Notice; issuance.

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 (UF 6) 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: Bridget.Curran@nrc.gov. 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 PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. 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 PDR.Resource@nrc.gov 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 Meléndez Colón, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-7295; email: Daneira.Melendez-Colon@nrc.gov.

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 UF 6 enriched to greater than 5 but less than 10 wt. percent U-235. Currently, CoC No. 9362, Revision No. 5, allows for transport
of UF 6 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 UF 6 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 UF 6 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 UF 6 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 UF 6 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 UF 6 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

  transportation packages for domestic transport of UF 6 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 UF 6 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 UF 6, 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 UF 6, 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 UF 6 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 UF 6 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 UF 6 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 UF 6 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 UF 6 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 UF 6, 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 UF 6 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.

| Document description | ADAMS accession No./
Federal Register
citation |
| --- | --- |
| Louisiana Energy Services, LLC, also dba Urenco USA, exemption request, dated October 8, 2025 | ML25281A317. |
| Supplements to request for exemption, dated December 16, 2025, and February 4, 2026 | ML25350C350.
ML26035A335. |
| NUREG-0170, Final Environmental Statement on the Transportation of Radioactive Material by Air and Other Modes, Volumes 1
and 2, December 1977 | ML022590355 (Package).
ML022590370. |
| Final Rule—51.22(c)(13) | 49 FR 9352, at 9368. |
| Certificate of Compliance No. 9362, Revision No. 5, dated June 11, 2024 | ML24159A018 (Package). |
| NRC email to State of New Mexico, “Request for State comments regarding an environmental assessment—Urenco USA,” dated March
20, 2026 | ML26098A002. |
| NRC email to State of Washington, “Request for State comments regarding an environmental assessment—Urenco USA,” dated March
20, 2026 | ML26098A001. |
| State of New Mexico email to NRC, “Re: Request for State comments regarding an environmental assessment—Urenco USA,” dated
April 8, 2026 | ML26099A018. |
| NRC Response to comment from State of New Mexico, “Response to comment re: Request for State comments regarding and environmental
assessment—Urenco USA,” dated April 10, 2026 | ML26100A208. |
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

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