USEC is in discussions with the Department of Energy on completing some work at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion plant to prepare it for decontamination and decommissioning after a program currently running the plant ends, USEC CEO John Welch told WC Monitor yesterday. USEC completed such “cold shutdown” work previously after it ceased operations at the Portsmouth facility, and the Department is currently working on its strategy for Paducah. “We are still having discussions on what the Department wants to do,” Welch said, adding, “We are talking with them on here’s some things that we think could be done that would help them save money in the long term, and they are looking at what their budget can afford, so those are the kinds of discussions that we’re having. I don’t think you’ll see nearly the amount of cold shutdown activities as we had at Portsmouth. I don’t think the funds are there for that.”
It’s unclear how any work performed by USEC would square with the Department’s plans to by May release a draft Request for Task proposals for deactivation work at Paducah, which would be made available to holders of DOE’s nationwide unrestricted Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity cleanup contracts. USEC is currently operating the Paducah plant under a uranium tails reenrichment program brokered by DOE that is set to be completed in the end of May, however DOE and USEC are also in talks on extending that program. “Everybody would like to see an extension, at least to get into the next fiscal year,” Welch said yesterday. “But it’s got to make economic sense. We are continuing to pursue some options there.”