WITH NO LOAN GUARANTEE IN SIGHT, USEC SHIFTS FOCUS TO R&D

The company cautioned last month that if it did not receive a DOE commitment by the end of October for a $2 billion loan guarantee for the proposed enrichment plant it would be forced to scale back work. In Friday’s statement, though, USEC said it is “working with its strategic investors to determine how best to structure ongoing investment in the project and move forward with this RD&D program and future commercialization. Should an agreement on the RD&D program and funding be reached, further demobilization of the American Centrifuge project would be avoided.” The proposed R&D program would include the manufacture and operation of production design machines “so that key systems can be tested as they would actually operate at the scale necessary for full commercialization.” That could include a cost share that where DOE would cover 80 percent of costs during an initial technical verification phase and 20 percent of the cost of the rest of the RD&D program. The government’s contribution would be capped at $300 million. “DOE, USEC and our partners remain supportive of a path to commercializing the American Centrifuge and believe additional work demonstrating this innovative technology would be beneficial to the project,” USEC CEO John Welch said. “This preserves a path for USEC and our shareholders to obtain value from the investment they have made in the American Centrifuge project.”