As USEC Inc. reported its latest earnings Tuesday, the
company also issued an update on efforts to acquire a loan guarantee for its
American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon Ohio.
A company earnings release was blunt about the plant’s prospects
without Department of Energy support: “We expect to evaluate our spending plan
on the American Centrifuge project regularly in 2011 and we will not continue
spending on the project without a clear path to a DOE loan guarantee
commitment.”
Citing new potential investors, a second release from the company
indicated it is making progress in meeting DOE’s capital requirements for the
$2 billion guarantee. According to the release, the company is in discussions with
Japanese export credit agencies regarding up to $1 billion in financing. The
release goes on to state that in 2011 USEC also will look to complete the
remaining two phases of a $200 million investment by Toshiba Corp. and Babcock
& Wilcox.
In an estimate last August, USEC indicated completing the
American Centrifuge Plant would cost roughly $2.8 billion. Construction at the plant
began in 2007 after NRC licensing, but USEC significantly cut back on construction
and machine manufacturing in 2009 after DOE initially denied a loan guarantee
request. DOE allowed USEC to withdraw its application, though, and has been
working with the company to meet technical and financial benchmarks that would
allow the agency to move forward with the loan guarantee. In October, after a
review of an updated application, the agency provided USEC with a draft term
sheet that served as a framework for the ongoing negotiations.
The plant’s plans call for a capacity of 3.5 million SWU per
year. The company indicated that once financing is achieved, it would take two
years before commercial operation would begin, then an additional three years
to complete the plant.