16 May (NucNet): A five-party agreement has been finalised that will extend uranium enrichment operations at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky for another year.
The agreement was signed between USEC, Energy Northwest, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the US Department of Energy (DOE).
Under the agreement, announced yesterday, the DOE will provide Energy Northwest with about 9,000 metric tonnes of tails (high-assay depleted uranium hexafluoride), USEC said in a statement.
USEC said it will enrich the tails to make about 480 metric tonnes of low-enriched uranium (LEU).
Energy Northwest will use some of the LEU for its single-unit Columbia nuclear plant in the state of Washington, USEC said. The remainder of the US-origin LEU will be sold to TVA for use in TVA’s reactors, including reactors that are used to produce tritium, which is used in the country’s nuclear arsenal.
TVA will supply the power for the re-enrichment under an agreement to extend the existing USEC-TVA power contract, the statement said.
The Paducah plant, owned by the DOE and leased and operated by USEC, is the largest uranium enrichment plant in the US, accounting for nearly all current US enriched uranium production.
