Draft2:Centrus Energy
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Centrus Energy Corp. (formerly USEC Inc.) is an American company that supplies nuclear fuel for use in nuclear power plants. It is the parent company of the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), a corporation that contracts with the United States Department of Energy to produce enriched uranium for nuclear power plants.
USEC used the gaseous diffusion process to enrich uranium at its plant in Paducah, Kentucky. This process uses uranium hexafluoride (UF6) as a feed material. UF6 is a solid at room temperature but becomes a gas when heated above 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Once heated to a gaseous state, the UF6 is fed into the plant's cascades to be enriched.
High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium
{{#evt:service=youtube|id=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgw7FEkIwBo%7Calignment=right%7Cdimensions=400%7Cdescription=What is High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU)?}} The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved Centrus Energy’s request to make high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel (HALEU) at its enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. The plant is now the only licensed HALEU production facility in the United States.[1]
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is currently supporting a three-year, $170 million dollar cost-shared demonstration project with Centrus. The company has already built 16 advanced centrifuge machines for uranium enrichment and expects to begin HALEU production by early next year.
The amended license allows the facility to produce HALEU by enriching uranium up to 20% with uranium-235—the main fissile isotope that produces energy during a nuclear reaction. Current reactors are typically enriched up to 5%. Under the DOE demo project, the company will provide up to 600 kilograms of HALEU by next June. The material will be used to support the testing and demonstration of new reactor designs.
HALEU-based fuel is not commercially available in the United States and DOE is pursuing three different options to support the testing and demonstration of advanced reactors, including this project. The NRC amended license covers the length of the DOE contract and expires in 2022. If sufficient funding is available to continue operation, the license can be amended again to extend the term.
Company history with DOE
United States Enrichment Corporation
The Energy Policy Act of 1992 created the United States Enrichment Corporation out of the Department of Energy as a state owned enterprise to enrich uranium for civilian use, and in July 1993 USEC took over DOE facilities. USEC was fully privatized by the U.S. government on July 28, 1998 through an initial public offering. The U.S. government received about three billion dollars for USEC.[citation needed] USEC had gaseous diffusion plants at Paducah, KY (Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant) and Piketon, Ohio (Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant).
The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission assumed regulatory authority over the Portsmouth facility in March 1997 and on June 5, 1998 the agency made an investigation into alleged "failure to control components with uranium deposits, inadequate maintenance, testing and operation of safety valves on equipment, and exceeding the possession limit for uranium enriched greater than 20 percent."[2] In May 2001, USEC ceased uranium enrichment operations in Piketon and consolidated operations in Paducah, Kentucky. The following year, transfer and shipping operations were also consolidated at Paducah.[citation needed]
A demonstration gas centrifuge plant was being built at Piketon for initial commercial operation in 2009, while a full-sized plant is planned there for operation in 2012.[3] However, in July 2009 the DOE did not grant a $2 billion loan guarantee for the planned uranium-enrichment facility in Piketon, "causing the initiative to go into financial meltdown," the USEC spokesperson Elizabeth Stuckle said, adding "we are now forced to initiate steps to demobilize the project."[4][5]
On July 28, 2009, the company said that it was suspending work on the project because of the Department of Energy's decision not to provide loan guarantees. The Energy Department said that the proposed plant was not ready for commercial production and therefore ineligible for the loan guarantees. The department said that if USEC withdraws its application, it will receive $45 million over the next 18 months to conduct further research.
Before its downsizing and final cessation of uranium enrichment on May 31, 2013, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant consumed about 3,000 megawatts of electricity at peak operation.[6] Power for the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant came from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). In 2012 the majority of the TVA grid was generated by coal fired plants, with three nuclear power plants counting for about 30 percent of TVA's energy.[7]
The Department of Energy remains responsible for clean-up of the sites of materials left there prior to 1993.[citation needed]
USEC was the executive agent in the U.S./Russia Highly Enriched Uranium Purchase Agreement, implemented under the Megatons to Megawatts Program.[citation needed]
On December 16, 2013, USEC announced that it had reached an agreement with a majority of its debt holders to file a prearranged and voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring in the first quarter of 2014.[8] On September 30, 2014, executives announced that the company had emerged from bankruptcy proceedings with a new name, Centrus Energy Corp.[9]
Related
External links
- http://www.centrusenergy.com/
- https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/last-major-ettp-facility-ready-demolition-oak-ridge
- https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/centrus-becomes-first-us-licensed-haleu-production-facility
References
- ↑ https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/centrus-becomes-first-us-licensed-haleu-production-facility
- ↑ United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 29 May 1998. (Press Release). NRC website Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ↑ "USEC Portsmouth "American Centrifuge Plant" project, USA". wise-uranium.org. http://www.wise-uranium.org/epusecc.html.
- ↑ "Dispatch Politics". The Columbus Dispatch. http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/07/29/Piketon29.ART_ART_07-29-09_A1_VBEK453.html?sid=101.
- ↑ "USEC loan guarantee application rejected; shares plunge". Washington Business Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/07/27/daily41.html.
- ↑ Sea, Geoffrey (May 31, 2013). "Uranium Enrichment Ends at Paducah (Part 3)". ecowatch. http://ecowatch.com/2013/breaking-uranium-enrichment-ends-at-paducah/.
- ↑ "Nuclear Energy". TVA. November 2012. http://www.tva.com/power/nuclear/index.htm.
- ↑ "USEC Inc. Reaches Agreement with Noteholder Group To Move Forward with Balance Sheet Restructuring". USEC. 16 December 2013. http://www.usec.com/news/usec-inc-reaches-agreement-noteholder-group-move-forward-balance-sheet-restructuring.
- ↑ Overly, Steven (30 September 2014). "Centrus Energy, formerly known as USEC, emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/centrus-energy-formerly-known-as-usec-emerges-from-chapter-11-bankruptcy/2014/09/30/df84fde4-48bc-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_story.html.