USEC's trash could be treasure: Local officials hope lobbying effort will extend Paducah plant a few more years

 

May 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Joe Walker The Paducah Sun, Ky.

Local leaders want Congress to require the U.S. Department of Energy to transfer control of spent uranium to USEC, a move which could help extend the life of the 1,100-employee Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

"We have a mine out there in the western part of the county," Judge-Executive Van Newberry said. "It's a uranium mine."

Mayor Bill Paxton said spent uranium in tens of thousands of cylinders at the Paducah plant, and a closed sister plant in Piketon, Ohio, is worth about $3 billion, based on the soaring price of the low-level radioactive metal. Transferring some of the material to USEC to be re-enriched for use in nuclear power plants could extend the life of the Paducah factory by two to 10 years, he said.

"Those are our cylinders. They've been sitting out in our community for the last 50 years, and nobody wanted them," Paxton said. "Now uranium prices have shot up, they're a hot item, and (DOE officials) want to do something else with them.

"We're saying, 'Excuse us. We want it processed right here in order to create jobs.'"

Paxton and Newberry spoke at the end of Tuesday's monthly Paducah Uranium Plant Asset Utilization Task Force at City Hall. They said they and local Chamber of Commerce officials met Monday night at Whaler's Catch restaurant with USEC President and Chief Executive Officer John Welch and his staff to discuss a plan of action.

As a result, chamber lobbyist John Cooper will work with a USEC counterpart to build support among the Kentucky and Ohio congressional delegations. Lawmakers would then engage DOE, which owns most of the canisters.

"It's an economic win, but I don't think it's a priority with our delegation right now, and that's not a criticism," Paxton said. "I just don't think there's been enough discussion about it."

USEC wants a proposal from DOE, which has not publicly given its sentiments, he said. "There hasn't been a vehicle with which to find out how DOE feels up to this point."

USEC wants Congress to approve the transfer of about $1.5 billion in spent uranium to help pay soaring costs of power at the Paducah plant, which burns as much electricity as St. Louis. Language for the transfer has been floating on Capitol Hill in recent months, but no one has stepped forward as a sponsor. It would allow USEC to further enrich the material to be fed into the Paducah plant, freeing up expensive natural uranium feed to be sold.

Paxton said boosting USEC financially would help DOE find a use for an increasingly valuable asset, previously thought of as waste, and help the company pay for a 500-job gas centrifuge plant slated for Piketon. The $2.3 billion plant would replace the outdated Paducah factory starting about 2012.

USEC says that because of declining cash flow it will need help to finance the centrifuge factory while paying for a 50 percent hike in Tennessee Valley Authority power. That help could come from private or governmental sources. Electricity accounts for 70 percent of the Paducah plant's production costs.