Suppliers Scramble To Build Uranium-Enrichment Plants
The nuclear industry is sprinting to build nuclear-enrichment plants in the U.S. before its supply of en-riched uranium dries up in 2013. Bethesda, Md.-based USEC Inc. is building a $3.5-billion enrichment plant at the site of its shuttered plant in Piketon, Ohio. Louisiana Energy Services (LES), a subsidiary of U.K.-based Urenco Ltd., is building a $3-billion enrichment plant at a greenfield site in Eunice, N.M., and Paris-based Areva is seeking approval to build an enrichment facility at a greenfield site near Idaho Falls at cost of more than $2 billion.
All three facilities will use a gas-centrifuge technology that has been used in Europe for years, but not in the U.S. Additionally, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy is considering a fourth plant that would use lasers to enrich uranium, near its headquarters in Wilmington, N.C.