NS&D Monitor
09/11/2015
Centrus Announces Possible Upcoming American Centrifuge Layoffs
Centrus Energy has notified about 380 American Centrifuge workers that layoffs could be coming in a couple months. The company, which heads the uranium enrichment project, emphasized that the notices don’t necessarily mean layoffs are sure to happen but are necessary to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
The majority of the worker notices went to employees in Ohio, where the project is based, but about 145 went to Oak Ridge workers, where much of the research and development activities are taking place.
Centrus is developing the plans to for a centrifuge-based uranium-enrichment plant to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. Plans to deploy such a plant, however, have been put on hold for now due to poor market conditions.
The company was formerly known as USEC Inc., but changed its name after coming out of bankruptcy proceedings about a year ago.
The American Centrifuge effort is dependent on funding from the Department of Energy. Centrus has been negotiating with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which DOE appointed to oversee the work and help preserve the classified technology for strategic reasons. The United States currently does not have a domestic source for uranium enrichment.
In a statement released Thursday, Centrus said it is in “active discussions” about funding for continued operations. “While the current contract is set to expire on Sept. 30, we are hopeful that the laboratory will make funds available to continue advancing this technology,” the statement said.
ORNL spokesman David Keim declined to comment Thursday. The National Nuclear Security Administration did not immediately respond to a request for information.
