CONGRESSIONAL STAFF NOTIFIED LAST MINUTE OF $44 MILLION IN USEC FUNDING

A recent infusion of $44.4 million from the Department of Energy to a program supporting USEC’s American Centrifuge Project came with little input from Congress. The Department called Congressional appropriators last Friday to notify them of the Administrative action being done that day, which came in the days after the House and Senate completed separate versions of a Continuing Resolution that would each provide funding for the program. In a complicated arrangement, last Friday the Department transferred back to USEC $44 million in low enriched uranium that USEC provided to DOE last year. In turn, the Department will keep the natural uranium hexafluoride feed for that same material. That move was “not the best way” to fund the program, a Senate staffer told NW&M Monitor, given that DOE is returning to USEC material that the company had used as a form of payment in exchange for DOE taking on some of USEC’s uranium tails liability. “They should have proposed a reprogramming. What is USEC trading at today? 39 cents?” 

This comes after Senate appropriators criticized DOE last year for providing funding to USEC without Congressional approval. In early 2012 DOE took over $44 million of USEC’s uranium tails liability as a type of stopgap funding measure for American Centrifuge, and USEC agreed to give DOE an equivalent amount of LEU in return. That move “raises significant concerns,” Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to DOE in January 2012. Since then, Congress has showed support for the USEC program in the form of funding, following reforms by the company. DOE tied the latest funding action to USEC meeting several technical milestones, and the money is expected to keep the research, development and deployment cost-share program running through June 15. "The latest steps taken by the Department ensure that we continue to move forward with the American Centrifuge Plant research, development and demonstration effort, while maintaining strong protections for the American taxpayers," DOE spokeswoman Niketa Kumar said in a written response. To date, DOE has provided $177.8 million for its share of the program out of a total commitment of $280 million.

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