Due to lower-than-anticipated demand, URENCO is slowing down construction of the next phase of its URENCO USA uranium enrichment facility in New Mexico. “URENCO USA is continuing its expansion to 5.7 million SWU, but we are operating in a marketplace that has a much diminished demand because of the accident in Japan,” URENCO Inc. President and CEO Kirk Schnoebelen told RW Monitor last week. “So one of the ways we are adjusting the output to match our customers’ demand profile is to expand at a slightly slower rate than had originally been planned.”
The company plans to install the first million SWU of the third phase at normal rates between now and 2015. The second million SWU will be installed at slowed rates between 2016 and 2022. “When those delivery commitments increase, we’ll be poised to accelerate expansion and take advantage of a new license limit of 10 million SWU/a,” URENCO Vice President of Communications and External Relations Clint Williamson said in a written response.