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Options sought if plant closes: A bipartisan group on Capitol Hill has sent their concerns about the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant to the GAO.(Paducah Sun, The (KY) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 28-- -- Five Capitol Hill leaders want the Government Accountability Office to determine the federal government's options if USEC Inc. closes the 1,100-employee Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant or can't commercialize a $2.3 billion replacement factory in Piketon, Ohio. The group also has asked Congress' investigative arm if the Department of Energy can legally transfer about $1.5 billion in spent uranium at the Paducah plant to help the cash-strapped company and how to protect the government if that happens. A letter went out Wednesday from Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources; John Dingell and Joe Barton, chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; and Bart Stupak, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. "It's a bipartisan group representing both houses of Congress, so it's a very high-priority request to the GAO," said Rob Ervin, president of the Paducah nuclear workers' union. He said the letter stems from USEC's inability to float legislation to approve the transfer of the uranium to help the Bethesda, Md., firm pay soaring costs of power at Paducah. Community leaders support the plan, hoping to extend the life of factory beyond the anticipated start of closure in 2012. But just before the GAO letter went out, USEC President John Welch wrote Dingell saying use of the spent uranium would last no longer than 4 1/2 years. After production costs, the net value of the enriched uranium could range from $750 million to $1 billion, Welch said. "We would propose that this value be distributed in a manner that protects the U.S. government's interests," he said. Paducah's is the only remaining plant in the U.S. that enriches uranium for nuclear fuel. USEC plans to replace it with a more energy-efficient gas centrifuge plant in Piketon starting in 2012. But the company says it needs help from private investors, the government or both to fund the new plant and still pay for more than a 50 percent hike in the cost of Paducah plant power in the past year. USEC customers typically provide feed uranium for the Paducah plant. The company would save money by instead using 55 million pounds of the spent uranium -- left over from decades of enrichment work -- as feed and selling the customer-provided material at a profit. With uranium in short supply, the price has jumped more than threefold in the past year. The key lawmakers asked the GAO to respond by June 14 on the legality of transferring the material and its impact on other Energy Department programs. They want a briefing by Aug. 1 on the government's options should the Paducah plant close or the Piketon plant not be funded, and on ways to protect the government in the uranium transfer. A 2002 agreement with DOE requires USEC to run the Paducah plant at a certain production level until six months before opening the Piketon factory, which must be ready to operate by 2010. USEC anticipates opening a test plant later this year. Ervin said the union supports transferring the spent uranium to USEC in an effort to keep the Paducah plant viable and help the community. "We're approaching this venture from a what's-best-for-Paducah perspective, not a what's-best-for-USEC perspective," he said. "At the end of the day, we're interested in keeping the plant running as long as we can." Copyright (c) 2007, The Paducah Sun, Ky. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |