March 17, 2014

DOE SIGNS URANIUM HOLDING AGREEMENT WITH LES

By ExchangeMonitor

The Department of Energy has finalized a new uranium holding agreement with LES URENCO USA, according to officials. The agreement is a necessary part of DOE’s use of its excess uranium to help fund cleanup activities. “This is simply an agreement with LES to allow DOE to send material to them and for us to obtain credit with LES for delivery on their accounts. Such credits can then be transferred to others as subsequent transactions are made. DOE previously had such an arrangement with USEC,” Tim Echelard, a spokesman for the DOE Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, said in a written response late last week.

According to a notice issued in June, the agreement calls on the contractor to “conduct Book Transfers and Physical Transfers between DOE and other entities at DOE direction, and the awardee should have the capability to enrich uranium to nuclear fuel cycle limits under different contracts.” DOE previously had such an agreement with USEC, but chose this summer to look for other enrichers due to USEC likely ceasing enrichment operations at the Paducah plant next year. “LES’ enrichment services customers provide feed material to UUSA from a number of sources and we work to organize the necessary underlying agreements with these various suppliers to support physical delivery and book transfers. We are, of course, pleased to work with the US Department of Energy in this regard.” LES spokesperson Brenda Brooks said in a written response late last week.

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