Kenneth Fletcher
RW Monitor
6/27/2014

The Department of Energy officially asked Congressional appropriators this week to reprogram about $33 million in National Nuclear Security Administration funds to support the American Centrifuge Project through the remainder of the fiscal year.  USEC is currently continuing work on the American Centrifuge Project under an 18-month subcontract with Oak Ridge National Laboratory that began in May and is expected to amount to $33.7 million this fiscal year. DOE is looking to reprogram about $30 million in funds from the NNSA’s Weapons Activities account and $2.9 million from the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation account. “These actions are needed to support Domestic Uranium Enrichment activities by continuing operability of the advanced centrifuges in a warm standby period through FY 2014 while options are assessed,” states the Department’s June 24 letter to Congressional appropriators, obtained by RW Monitor.

The Weapons Activities funds would largely come from unearned contractor award fee. That includes more than $16 million from the Y-12 National Security Complex, $4 million from the Pantex Plant, $3 million from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, $2.5 million from Los Alamos National Laboratory and about $1 million each at Kansas City and the Nevada National Security Site. From nonproliferation, $1.9 million would come from NNSA and DOE assessments that did “not fully materialize,” according to the reprogramming in addition to about $1 million in unearned contractor fee from Y-12, Lawrence Livermore, Sandia, and LANL.

USEC finished in May a two-year research, development and deployment cost-share program with the Department. Though that program was successful in meeting milestones to prove the viability of the American Centrifuge technology, given current market conditions USEC is not able to commercialize the plant and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Under the terms of the program, DOE was able to take over management of the technology and launch the new program under ORNL management. Earlier this month, the NNSA undertook two internal reprogrammings to help fund the program: $5 million in FY’14 weapons activities funds and $2 million from Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation funds. The ORNL-led effort has two $42 million six-month option periods to take it through Fiscal Year 2015 for a total value of $118 million.

The Department said in its request this week that given the recent shutdown of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the American Centrifuge technology is the only choice for building a domestic enrichment capacity that could be used for national security purposes such as tritium production. “The Department has approved a short-term path forward for Domestic Enrichment Activities to preserve the [American Centrifuge Enrichment] technology and the ability to meet national security tritium and enriched uranium demand over the coming decade,” the DOE reprogramming letter states. “In addition, necessary capabilities will be established to ensure these nuclear materials can be produced, when needed, to support DOE/NNSA missions while an Interagency Policy Committee explores long-term needs for unencumbered low enriched uranium and the options available to meet those requirements going forward.”