Consortium breaks ground on New Mexico uranium enrichment plant

Washington (Platts)--29Aug2006

In a move that was hailed as evidence of the resurgent nuclear power
industry, Louisiana Energy Services, a consortium of US and European power
companies, broke ground Tuesday on a $1.5-billion uranium-enrichment plant in
southeastern New Mexico.

The plant, dubbed the National Enrichment Facility, will produce fuel for
commercial nuclear power plants. "A lot of people in the company and the
community have worked very hard to make this moment happen, and we want to
share our excitement with Lea County [New Mexico] and our neighbors in Texas,"
said Jim Ferland, LES president, at a ground-breaking ceremony near the tiny
town of Eunice, New Mexico, where the facility will be built.

A number of top energy policymakers attended the ceremony, including
Under Secretary of Energy David Garman and Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, Republican-New Mexico. Domenici played a key
role in winning approval for the plant, which was blocked for a time by New
Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat and a former energy secretary
under President Clinton.

Richardson had long vowed to block the plant unless he received
assurances that the depleted uranium waste that it will generate will not
remain in his state permanently. Richardson and Domenici worked out a deal on
the waste issue last year, which cleared the way for the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to issue LES a construction and operating license in June.

Still, two environmental groups--Nuclear Information and Resource
Service and Public Citizen--are trying to get NRC to rescind the license. The
groups have not yet detailed their basis for the request, but they recently
notified the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that
they will be challenging NRC's issuance of the license.

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