The Energy Department officially plans to end the policy of bartering uranium to pay for legacy nuclear-weapon cleanup at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
The policy statement is included in a report issued Thursday that lays out a plan for restarting end-to-end nuclear fuel production in the United States.
The agency will will “cease bartering uranium” and also re-evaluate a 2008 Policy Statement on Management of DOE Excess Uranium Inventory, according to the report.
Barter involves of sale of excess government uranium in order to compensate for occasional shortfalls in remediation funding.
For nearly a decade, DOE traded or bartered excess uranium from the government inventory in return for services at DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) cleanup sites, chiefly the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant complex in Pike County, Ohio, the report notes.
The Energy Department barters uranium to Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth which then in turn sells it on the open market.
But the report notes in fiscal 2020 the agency received the appropriations necessary to complete the annual work without bartering uranium. Former Secretary Rick Perry agreed with congressional critics of the program, saying barter was “no way to run a railroad.”
Likewise, President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2021 request does not request the use of barter.
Portsmouth cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth has in the past used the barter program to raise funds that allowed it to avoid layoffs at times when congressional funding was insufficient.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) led the fight against uranium barter, saying the practice undermines the uranium mining industry in the United States, including his home state of Wyoming.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) basically agreed to discontinuing barter so long as adequate funds remain in place to ensure remediation progress continues without layoffs at Portsmouth.
