Washington (Platts)--16Dec2008

The US Department of Energy is considering making thousands of metric
tons of natural uranium available for sale to US nuclear operators to use in
the initial cores of new reactors, it said Tuesday.

That potential release is part of DOE's "Excess Uranium Inventory
Management Plan." The agency said "up to 7,700" metric tons of uranium, or
MTU, of the natural uranium could be sold "for a period of several years
starting in 2010."

DOE also is considering making available "as much as 4,647 MTU" of
natural uranium, which would be enriched to become about 500 MTU of
low-enriched uranium, according to the plan. The resulting material could be
part of a DOE LEU inventory, the department said.

DOE said it expects to pursue the plan in a way that "minimizes any
material adverse impacts on the domestic uranium mining, conversion and
enrichment industries."

The department also said it expected it would need 25 ears to carry out
the plan and that it would "periodically update" the plan to "reflect new and
evolving information, policies and programs."
--Daniel Horner, daniel_horner@platts.com