USEC OFFICIAL: U.S.-OWNED ENRICHMENT PLANT WOULD BE MORE COSTLY

A USEC official yesterday made the case that deploying its American Centrifuge project would be less expensive for the U.S. government than a government-owned plant used for solely national security purposes. The Department of Energy has frequently cited the national security aspect of American Centrifuge plant as justification for government funding supporting the project, stating that a domestic source of enriched uranium is required for tritium production and naval reactor fuel. If USEC is unsuccessful in deploying its plant commercially, the technology goes to the U.S. Government. But USEC Chief Development Officer Phil Sewell said yesterday at a U.S. Energy Association Event, “It is much more efficient in terms of maintaining a domestic enrichment capability as a national asset if the commercial plant is deployed. There is additional cost, additional time, et cetera, associated with putting that capability in place.”

The current DOE-supported program will build one functioning cascade of 120 centrifuges. But Sewell said, “One cascade does not produce enough material to meet the national security annual requirements. So you would have to build additional cascades for that purpose. That’s an additional cost. If it’s commercially deployed that cost is zero because it is there, it exists, you are providing LEU.” He added that the cost of restarting the project if it is stalled would also be much higher. “There are estimates by others that it would cost $1 billion just to resurrect the infrastructure,” he said.