Uranium enrichment firm USEC announced Wednesday it has
entered a 10-year contract to purchase low-enriched uranium from Russian firm Techsnabexport
(TENEX). The firms also plan to study the feasibility of building a new uranium
enrichment plant in the U.S. using Russian technology.
Through the Megatons to Megawatts program that downblends
material from retired Russian nuclear warheads, TENEX currently supplies half
of the uranium USEC turns into commercial fuel. The new agreement will give
USEC continued access to Russian uranium – in this case commercially produced
LEU – when that program ends in 2013.
The contract calls for LEU shipments to begin in 2013 and
increase over two years to roughly half the amount of uranium TENEX currently
provides, according to a USEC release. The contract includes a mutual option to
increase the amount of uranium delivered to today’s levels.
The contract is subject to approval by both U.S. and Russian
regulators, which USEC expects to obtain this year.
The company also announced it will explore building a new
enrichment facility:
“USEC and TENEX expect to conduct a feasibility study to
explore the possible deployment of an enrichment plant in the United States
employing Russian centrifuge technology.”
The release indicated construction on such a plant would not
begin until USEC completes the American Centrifuge Project. USEC has made
explicit in previous statements that completion of that plant in Piketon, Ohio,
will not occur without a federal loan guarantee that, at this point, may or may
not be granted.