Centrus Energy said Monday it has signed a $16 million contract to continue for another year its research and development of advanced gas centrifuge uranium enrichment technology at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee. However, the company’s time in at least one Oak Ridge facility is nearing its end as DOE cleans up the site.
The contract with lab management and operations prime UT-Battelle runs through Sept. 30, 2018. The agreement enables Centrus to test improvements to the AC100 centrifuge at Oak Ridge. Centrus, which was formally USEC Inc., has worked with ORNL since 2014 to enhance the AC100 technology.
Centrus spokesman Jeremy Derryberry said he could not discuss specifics of the company’s work with ORNL.
There was no word this week on what will happen after September 2018. The centrifuge work is conducted at the K-1600 facility in the East Tennessee Technology Park and at Centrus’ Technology and Manufacturing Center at Oak Ridge.
Centrus leases the K-1600 facility in ETTP from the Energy Department. The company owns the Technology and Manufacturing Center, which is not on the ETTP site, Derryberry said.
Contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) is cleaning up the East Tennessee Technology Park under contract with the Energy Department. Its contract expires in 2020, with 2,200 acres of land at the former uranium enrichment complex due to be turned over for reuse.
“We anticipate completing all demolition at ETTP by 2020, including K-1600 (Centrus) and K-1200 complex buildings that are currently under lease,” Ben Williams, spokesman for DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, said recently.
David Adler, OREM quality and mission support chief, told the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board in early October that Centrus was still using some key on-site infrastructure and DOE was working to get the company to a “stopping point,” so the area could be cleaned up on time.
“Their activities are winding down and we are working toward finishing that job. We’re coordinating to ensure that we can get the building cleaned up,” Adler said.
Derryberry said Centrus management is aware of the anticipated timeline for the ETTP and has been discussing various options with DOE on how to maintain the “critical” workforce and infrastructure needed to support the centrifuge technology development.
Centrus’ American Centrifuge technology is intended to provide an advanced means of uranium enrichment for commercial and national security purposes. It would replace older technology no longer used in the United States, which currently lacks an industrial-scale enrichment capability. The company has said it is seeking to advance the technology so it can be deployed whenever needed by DOE.
Centrus shut down an American Centrifuge demonstration project at Piketon, Ohio, in 2016, after DOE cut off funding the year before.
