The Department of Energy is planning to take over management of USEC’s American Centrifuge Project, which will be run by DOE out of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz said yesterday. A DOE cost share program supporting ACP comes to an end on April 15, and under the program’s terms DOE can take over the rights to the technology if USEC fails to commercialize it. USEC is currently going through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. “Our current plan, and this is understood, is that the responsibility for managing it will novate to Oak Ridge, which is where the technology originates,” Moniz said yesterday at a House Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee hearing. “I think it is quite reasonable to speculate that of course the skilled workforce working on those machines would then have to be kept on one way or another—if I had to guess, through a subcontract for example with USEC.”
Moniz stressed the need for a domestic uranium enrichment capacity for tritium production and said the immediate question is how the program will be funded. Congress has approved an additional $56.65 million for uranium enrichment programs, but it is contingent on a cost-benefit analysis and is unlikely to last through Fiscal Year 2015. “Obviously, the ACP right now is a technology that has successfully gone through with meeting technical milestones in the RD&D project we have now finished funding. We have clearly a situation that perhaps unfortunately is very fluid for a couple of reasons,” Moniz said, adding later: “It would be very, very desirable if we could make sure to keep the 120 machines spinning.”
USEC, which has so far managed construction of a full cascade of centrifuges, yesterday said that it is ready to assist Oak Ridge in efforts moving forward. “ORNL is well positioned to support DOE’s program to ensure our nation maintains a domestic enrichment capability. As Secretary Moniz recognized, USEC has a skilled workforce and important experience that can assist ORNL in these efforts,” according to the USEC statement. “In particular, USEC has personnel with unique technical, manufacturing, operations, design and construction capabilities that have demonstrated their expertise by successfully implementing the RD&D program over the past two years. USEC stands ready to support ORNL in carrying out DOE’s program to meet national security requirements, as requested.”
