Uranium Enrichment & Fuel Cycle

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its Final Environmental Impact Statement on International Isotopes’ proposed depleted uranium deconversion and fluorine extraction facility in Lea County, N.M. “The FEIS contains the staff’s assessment that there are no impacts that would preclude licensing the proposed facility,” NRC said in a statement. International Isotopes applied on Dec. 30, […]

Though the National Nuclear Security Administration is committed to a global transition to producing medical isotopes with low-enriched uranium, it is seeking permission to export highly-enriched uranium to a Canadian company to make the isotopes. In an application filed July 30 and made public this week, NNSA is seeking permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission […]

B&W Conversion Services, LLC, has reached an operational milestone at one of the Department of Energy’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plants. Late last week, BWCS announced that the facility at the Portsmouth site had completed its “partial conversion operations phase,” meaning that all of the plant’s conversion lines had operated for a sustained […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program and USEC’s research, development and deployment program for the American Centrifuge Project would get boosts in the forthcoming Fiscal Year 2013 Continuing Resolution, according to a list of “anomalies” recently sent to Congress by the White House Office of Management and Budget. While most federal programs—and the bulk […]

The United States has lost its only commercial domestic uranium conversion plant for at least a year following a shutdown of the Metropolis Works Plant due to issues uncovered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Plant operator Honeywell provided ConverDyn with formal notification of force majeure last month, a contract clause that frees it from liability […]

A group of 19 organizations are calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to undertake a formal nuclear proliferation assessment on GE-Hitachi’s proposed Global Laser Enrichment plant in North Carolina before granting it an operating license. The NRC is in the final stages of licensing the plant, and is expected to make a decision later this […]

Jamie Jameson is stepping down next month as head of Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, the D&D contractor for the Portsmouth site. Jameson’s two-year commitment as FBP Program Manager is set to end Aug. 17, after which he will leave the company “to pursue other activities,” according to a company release issued yesterday. Jameson has headed FBP […]

B&W Conversion Services, LLC, no longer expects to have the Department of Energy’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants operating at full commercial throughput by the end of this fiscal year as previously planned. Due in large part to continued technical challenges, BWCS now expects to need until the end of Fiscal Year 2013 to […]

After a last-minute cancellation last week of a markup of legislation that would phase out the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will take up the bill today and consider provisions aimed at USEC’s American Centrifuge Plant. The “No More Solyndras Act” came as the result of the panel’s […]

The anti-loan guarantee legislation that cleared a House subcommittee yesterday still leaves USEC eligible for a Department of Energy loan guarantee despite efforts by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to target the company’s enrichment plant. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), chairman for the House Energy and Commerce Energy and Power subcommittee, said the legislation that passed the […]

International Isotopes Inc. announced yesterday that it has secured an agreement for enough funding to cover the remaining Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing activities for its planned uranium de-conversion and fluorine extraction processing facility, and to support expansion in several of the company’s core business segments in Idaho. A $3 million private placement with accredited investors […]

In the hopes of finding potential uses for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant beyond next year, Department of Energy officials yesterday outlined the state of the facility and its capabilities in a meeting with about 20 companies and led a tour of the plant. The meeting comes as current plant operator USEC is likely to […]

USEC reached a milestone yesterday in the Department of Energy’s research, development and deployment program for the American Centrifuge technology, establishing a board of managers for the program. Under an agreement with the Department, forming such a board allows DOE to spend an additional $61.3 million on the project, which is expected to fund it […]

USEC officials told investors yesterday that with Congress planning for a six-month Continuing Resolution starting this fall, the company is hoping for additional funding from the Department of Energy starting in November to avoid a demobilization of the American Centrifuge Project. While USEC this week reported a net loss of $92 million in the second […]

A senior USEC official yesterday brushed aside critics of government support for USEC’s American Centrifuge Project who have called into question the Administration’s national security arguments for providing the funds. “A lot of our critics have the luxury of not having to be restrained by fact. We as a public company working on these kinds […]

A pair of amendments to the House Energy and Water Appropriations bill that would have reduced federal support for USEC uranium enrichment activities failed yesterday. Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wy.) offered an amendment aimed at limiting several recently approved Department of Energy uranium transfers, one of which is designed to keep the USEC-operated Paducah enrichment plant […]

USEC has until Friday to obtain additional Department of Energy funding for the American Centrifuge Project before creditor JP Morgan significantly restricts the amount USEC can spend on the program. On June 1 the lender extended a line of credit that had been funding the project for 15 days, allowing USEC to spend $6 million […]

Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Michael Burgess (R-Texas) yesterday called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Department of Energy’s support for USEC. “We believe that this support is unlikely to result in the successful commercialization of USEC’s domestic uranium enrichment technology, may have been and may continue to be undertaken in contravention of […]

With another deadline for USEC’s troubled American Centrifuge Project looming, National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation chief Anne Harrington emphasized the Obama Administration’s support for a research, development and demonstration program for the project in testimony before a Senate panel yesterday. The Administration requested $150 million for the RD&D effort in the NNSA’s Fiscal Year 2013 […]

The Department of Energy yesterday officially launched a long-awaited research, development and demonstration program supporting USEC’s struggling American Centrifuge Project through a deal in which DOE will take title to USEC’s liability for $87.7 million in depleted uranium tails. In return, the company has agreed to a number of conditions that include new management for […]

The Department of Energy is planning to hold a workshop this summer in Paducah, Ky. with entities interested in operating the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant past 2013, WC Monitor has learned. A formal announcement is expected to be released in the coming weeks. In May, the Department of Energy finalized a deal with the Tennessee […]

The Government Accountability Office has accepted a request by Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Michael Burgess (R-Texas) to investigate the Department of Energy’s support of USEC. Due to staffing issues, though, the government watchdog group won’t begin work on the study for approximately three months. Because Markey is the ranking member of the House Natural […]

 The Center for Strategic and International Studies is set to hold a discussion today on “National Security and U.S. Domestic Uranium Enrichment Requirements. Speakers will include Drew Walter from the House Armed Services Committee, Jonathan Epstein from the Senate Armed Services Committee, Nonproliferation Policy Education Center Executive Director Henry Sokolski, and Mark Holt from the […]

With the immediate future of USEC and its American Centrifuge Project secured for the time being through a financial lifeline earlier this month from the Department of Energy, the discussion has begun to shift to the longer-term pathway for the program and the best strategy to ensure the United States has a domestic supply of […]

Following the finalization of a program to have USEC re-enrich some of the Department of Energy’s uranium hexafluoride tails, USEC updated its financial projections yesterday to increase its anticipated revenue for 2012 by between $300 million and $400 million. Prior financial projections assumed that USEC would stop operating the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant at the […]

After the transportation bill passed by Congress Friday failed to grant the Department of Energy transfer authority for a program supporting USEC’s American Centrifuge technology, Hill staff are questioning how the Department plans to make up $42 million in additional funding needed to complete the program. The two-year research, development and deployment cost-share program is […]

The Department of Energy would have a significant amount of control over the participant in a proposed uranium enrichment research and development program under the House version of the FY 2013 Defense Authorization bill released yesterday, which would also require DOE to justify its selection of a company. USEC’s American Centrifuge Project has been DOE’s […]

As Congress takes steps that could lead to federal funding for USEC’s American Centrifuge project, Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) is ramping up opposition to government support for the proposed enrichment plant. While members of the House and Senate met Tuesday to conference on a transportation funding bill, Pearce’s office circulated a handout on the House […]

In a step that could eventually lead to USEC being dropped from the New York Stock Exchange, the company reported yesterday that it had received notice that its stock price had fallen below the exchange’s minimum share price rule. USEC received the continued listings standards notice because the average closing of its stock was below […]

Keeping the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in operation for another year, the Department of Energy has finalized a deal with the Tennessee Valley Authority, Energy Northwest and USEC to re-enrich 9,075 metric tons of depleted uranium tails from the DOE’s stockpile. The arrangement comes after months of discussion between the parties and is intended to […]