March 17, 2014

SENATORS TO INTRODUCE BILL BACKING USEC R&D FUNDING

By ExchangeMonitor

Members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation announced over the weekend that they plan to introduce legislation that would pave the way for $150 million in R&D funding for USEC’s American Centrifuge Plant through a combination of reprogramming funds and selling uranium tails. USEC warned it may have to demobilize the Ohio project if it does not receive funding for a Department of Energy program that would involve demonstration of a full “train” of 720 centrifuges. However, money for the program was not included in the FY 2012 spending bill that passed Congress late last week. The legislation, which Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rob Portman-(R-Ohio) say they intend to introduce, would reprogram $106 million of existing DOE funds and get the remaining $44 million from uranium tails at the Piketon site. The Senators say they spoke with Energy Secretary Steven Chu over the weekend and have his support for the plan.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that he did not support including the R&D funding in the spending bill because of his opposition to earmarks, but said he supports legislation backing the project absent a $2 billion DOE loan guarantee. “If the president will not fulfill the promise he made to the people of Piketon in 2008, then Congress must act to address the problem—but it must do so through the proper channels. That means writing a bill that is posted publicly online, openly debated, and makes assistance available to all qualified parties, and then moving that bill through the House in a fair and open way,” Boehner said.

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