With short-term funding for the program running out, USEC announced Friday afternoon that it is prepared to fund the American Centrifuge Project through May as it awaits additional support from the Department of Energy and Congress. An interim deal with the Department kept a research, development and deployment cost-share program for the project running from January through the end of March, with the hope that Congress would grant DOE transfer authority to continue funding the program. But lacking Congressional approval late last week, USEC is now using a credit facility negotiated with lender JP Morgan that allows it to spend up to $15 million on the project each month in April and May. “The USEC Board of Directors is closely monitoring efforts to obtain the federal cost share for 2012. Given the progress made to date, along the legislative and non-legislative paths towards obtaining funding, the Board has authorized continued limited spending in support of the RD&D program,” USEC President and CEO John Welch said in a statement.
USEC plans to continue to work toward gaining Congressional support for the project by the end of May. It also is in discussions with the Department for a potential agreement in which DOE would take on up to $82 million in depleted uranium tails liability from USEC and in return would receive license to intellectual property rights for the technology. “The Administration and Congress have been supportive of this innovative enrichment technology, and we will continue to work with them to achieve a funding solution for the RD&D program by the end of May. Our continued financial support for the cost-sharing RD&D program is not open ended and is limited by our credit facility. As a result, federal funding needs to be in place in the very near term,” Welch said.
