USEC yesterday said that the Department of Energy does not plan to extend a program supporting its American Centrifuge Project beyond April 15 and reported a net loss of $158.9 million in 2013 . American Centrifuge has been backed by a DOE research, development and deployment cost-share program since 2012. “Funding for the RD&D Program has only been provided through April 15, 2014, and DOE has stated that it does not plan to extend the RD&D cooperative agreement beyond such date,” states a USEC press release. “We continue to discuss with DOE its options for maintaining a domestic enrichment capability and DOE’s plans for the American Centrifuge project post-April 15, as well as our potential role in such options and during any transition.”
Because USEC does not have any financing in place for the project, it said ACP may be demobilized or terminated without additional DOE support, “which would result in severance costs, contractual commitments, contractual termination penalties and other related costs which would impose additional demands, which could be significant, on our liquidity and could affect the Bankruptcy Filing.” The company is hoping to put in place its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing this summer to reorganize its debt.
USEC reported a net loss of $158.9 million in 2013 yesterday, in a large part due to $194.2 million of non-production expenses incurred due to the end of enrichment at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. “With the cessation of enrichment at the Paducah GDP, we have entered a transition period where the non-production costs of preparing this vast facility for turnover to the Department of Energy are affecting our gross profit,” USEC CEO John Welch said in a statement. “These costs and related employee severance costs will continue to reduce our profitability in 2014 until the facilities are returned to DOE.”The return of Paducah to DOE is unlikely to happen before October 2014, USEC said, and there is no agreement to turn it over before August 2015.
