NRC Lays Plan for Depleted Uranium Munitions
Spent rounds from training conducted in the 1960s remain at sites in at least seven states, according to the U.S. Army.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will host a public meeting Nov. 16 with officials from the U.S. Army’s Installation Management Command to discuss licensing and regulation of depleted uranium at U.S. Army installations in several states left over from munitions training in the 1960s. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in the NRC commissioner's hearing room at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md.
The meeting will be available to the public by phone or as a live webcast. The agency said Nov. 12 that the the Army used M101 spotting rounds made with depleted uranium to train train soldiers with the Davy Crocket recoilless gun, and fragments of expended rounds remain on the ground of training ranges. The weapon was classified weapons system, so "precise records are unavailable of where and how much DU was used," according to its notice, which said apparently enough depleted uranimu is at each site to require an NRC license "to possess and monitor the material to ensure it does not escape to the surrounding environment and pose a health risk to troops or the public."
The Army After found spent rounds at several training locations beginning in 2005 and applied for a possession license in November 2008. The sites known to have those rounds in Hawaii, Georgia, Kentucky, Colorado, Texas, Washington, and Kansas, but the Army believes additional sites in more states may need to be added to the license application.
To access the webcast, visit http://video.nrc.gov/live. For information on accessing the bridge line, contact Brett Klukan in the NRC Office of General Counsel at 301-415-3629 or [email protected].