8 May (NucNet): Without federal funding for its research, development and demonstration (RD&D) programme USEC’s American Centrifuge uranium enrichment project is likely to be wound down next month, the company said in a statement.
The statement said USEC has already invested more than two billion dollars (1.5 billion euro) in the American Centrifuge project, and will continue funding the RD&D programme until the end of May. After 31 May, the company’s credit facility will impose tight restrictions on project spending in the absence of an agreement with the Department of Energy (DOE) for federal funding.
USEC said while Congress is pursuing programme funding as part of the fiscal 2013 budget process, federal funding for the RD&D programme is not yet available from 1 June 2012 to 1 October 2012. “Without federal funding, USEC will likely begin to demobilise the project in June,” the statement said.
USEC said it is continuing to work on the RD&D programme proposed by the DOE to improve the “technical and financial readiness” of the centrifuge technology for commercialisation.
The company also said the project has surpassed one million hours of machine run-time in its lead cascade test programme.
USEC has operated centrifuge machines at its American Centrifuge demonstration facility in Ohio since August 2007.
USEC president and chief executive officer John Welch said one million hours of run-time “gives us great confidence in the machine technology and design”.
The plan is to construct and operate a demonstration cascade of 120 commercial centrifuge machines. The RD&D programme is expected to establish the “high-confidence level” in cascade reliability required by the DOE to support loan guarantee financing for the commercial plant, USEC said.
In October 2011 USEC said it was engaged in “advanced discussions” with the DOE regarding the future of the project.
USEC said it had been in discussions to “reduce the technology and financial risk” of commercialisation of the centrifuge technology.
Since 2002, USEC has been developing and demonstrating the American Centrifuge uranium enrichment gas centrifuge technology. USEC wants to commercially deploy the technology to produce low enriched uranium, a key component for the fabrication of commercial nuclear fuel.
