Honeywell's Metropolis plant can resume full operations after receiving the go ahead from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The plant which converts uranium or to uranium-hexafluoride closed last year after failing to meet standards for natural disaster preparedness. 228 employees had been without work while the plant addressed the infrastructure needs.
NRC Public Affairs Officer Roger Hannah said the commission conducted an independent inspection before allowing the plant to begin production.
“In this particular case, we went in and we looked at parts of their plant that needed to be enhanced to make sure it could meet seismic requirements and also could withstand damage from tornadoes and severe storms," said Hannah. "They made some of those changes and once they had completed those enhancements we inspected those as well to make sure they met the requirements as well.”
Hannah said the NRC authorized front-end operations at the plant last month because those processes do not involve materials that are chemically volatile.
Honeywell has not yet announced when full operations will continue.