After delays and cost increases, Bethesda-based USEC is preparing to test its next generation uranium enrichment technology in the coming weeks, company officials said Tuesday.
The company’s Ohio plant uses new centrifuge technology to enrich uranium. The only other enrichment plant in the United States — which is also owned by USEC and located in Kentucky — uses gas to diffuse uranium, a process developed in the 1950s.
USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said the centrifuge plant uses only half of the power to operate as the gas-technology plant.
“The new technology is so much superior in terms of performance and efficiency,” she said.
Stuckle said she expects the commercial plant to begin operating in 2009, with almost 12,000 centrifuges online by 2012.
During centrifuge enrichment, uranium is passed through a series of fast-spinning tubes, forcing the heavier variations of the element or isotopes away from the center.
The heavier uranium created during this process is then shipped to nuclear power plants, where it is used to make electricity.
President Bush has touted nuclear power as a key option for freeing the United States from foreign energy sources.
As the USEC plant is the only company in the United States producing enriched uranium, it would likely play an important role in any expansion of the U.S. nuclear energy industry.
However, the United States trails the rest of the world when it comes to using nuclear technology. Other countries rely heavily on nuclear power.
USEC has also fallen behind its foreign competitors. The company’s new plant has been delayed a year and cost estimates were recently revised from $1.7 billion to $2.3 billion.
“Building the centrifuge plant is going to be a long term process. It’s going to take some time to fully demonstrate the technology,” said Paul Clegg, an equity analyst at Natexis Bleichroeder in New York. “I don’t have many doubts that it’s going to work; the questions around the [United [States] centrifuge project are related to capital costs and timeline.”
When asked if the company would meet its $2.3 billion price projection, Clegg said; “I think you’ll see that raised.”
USEC’s stock fell $2.55, or 11.7 percent, to $19.24 in Tuesday trading after concerns arose that the company was struggling.
