EIS exemption for Libyan nuclear cargo

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@AECL.CA>]

NUCLEAR NEWS FLASHES - Friday, March 5, 2004

U.S. NEWS:

--NNSA INVOKED EMERGENCY PROVISIONS OF U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL LAW to bring

nuclear material from Libya to the U.S. in January without preparing an

environmental assessment or environmental impact statement, the agency said

today. In a notice in the Federal Register, DOE's National Nuclear Security

Administration (NNSA) said it had prepared a classified environmental review

that "bounded the accident scenarios." NNSA briefed the Council on

Environmental Quality before and after the mission, the notice said.

According to the notice, the U.S. removed 55,000 pounds of "nuclear material

and other sensitive equipment" from Libya after Tripoli opened its nuclear

and other programs to international inspection. The nuclear cargo was flown

to Knoxville, Tenn. and transported by land to the Y-12 site at the Oak

Ridge National Laboratory. The need for the exemption was created by the

inclusion of four cylinders of uranium hexafluoride "of varying enrichment

levels," NNSA said.