USEC

USEC was a shoo-in for the loan guarantee. This was due to its long history of supplying enriched uranium from blended down Russian HEU to nuclear utilities under the Megatons-to-Megawatts program and its prior history with the government that goes as far back as the Manhattan project during World War II. USEC’s plant.

When the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed, and included authorization for the $2 billion loan guarantee, USEC was the only firm expected to apply for it. Louisiana Energy Services, which is building a similar uranium enrichment plant in Eunice, NM, did not seek participation in the program. That plant is being built by a Urenco which is funding the construction of the $2 billion facility from its own resources.

At 3.8 million SWU, USEC's plant was the biggest of the uranium enrichment plants either under construction or planned for the U.S. Urenco and Areva both have initial building plans for about 2-3 million SWU each, but both firms say that longer term they plan to double their capacity. With USEC's project off the table, they could potentially move up their schedules for the larger build-out of production capacity.