Ohio uranium plant at risk without federal loan
COLUMBUS, Ohio (The Associated Press) - Jun 21
> A company's plans to build a uranium enrichment plant in southern
> Ohio are in jeopardy without a $2 billion federal loan guarantee, The
> Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday.
>
> USEC Inc., based in Bethesda, Md., is developing the American
> Centrifuge project on the site of a former gaseous diffusion plant in
> Piketon, about 65 miles south of Columbus.
>
> The company applied for the loan guarantee 10 months ago under a
> U.S.
> Department of Energy program launched by former President George W.
> Bush.
>
> Without the loan guarantee, USEC won't be able to obtain private
> financing, company officials said.
>
> The delay is adding to the project's overall cost, which is about
> $3.5 billion, USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle told The Dispatch.
> The company has spent about $1.4 billion so far, including the
> construction of a new facility.
>
> Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has said he intends to speed up
> the process of approving loan guarantees, but only one has been
> issued.
> In late
> March, Chu's department signed off on a $535 million loan guarantee
> for a solar-panel manufacturing plant to be built by California-based
> Solyndra.
>
> USEC's project, announced five years ago, is supposed to open in
> 2011 and employ about 400. Enriched uranium from the plant would be
> used in generating electricity at nuclear power plants.
>
> Work on the plant has slowed, and the prospect of mothballing it
> isn't far off, said Stuckle told the newspaper. She declined to
> specify when the project could be shut down.
>
> "This is a serious time issue. We cannot get enough funding
> absent the loan guarantee," Stuckle said.
>
> Rob Portman, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate and a
> former congressman from Cincinnati whose district included Piketon,
> recently wrote to President Barack Obama urging that the loan
> guarantee be granted quickly.
>
> Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland also wrote to Obama in March,
> saying that "without timely approval of the loan guarantee, the many
> thousands of new jobs currently being created will be delayed or
> perhaps lost."
>
> Obama was supportive when he campaigned in southern Ohio last
> year.
>
> The Piketon site is where the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion
> Plant enriched uranium during the Cold War.
>
> Cleanup of the site is still going on, and just last week Gov.
> Ted
> Strickland and other politicians announced plans by Duke Energy and
> the French nuclear energy company Areva to build a $10 billion nuclear
> power plant there over the next 10 years.
> A company's plans to build a uranium enrichment plant in southern
> Ohio are in jeopardy without a $2 billion federal loan guarantee, The
> Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday.
>
> USEC Inc., based in Bethesda, Md., is developing the American
> Centrifuge project on the site of a former gaseous diffusion plant in
> Piketon, about 65 miles south of Columbus.
>
> The company applied for the loan guarantee 10 months ago under a
> U.S.
> Department of Energy program launched by former President George W.
> Bush.
>
> Without the loan guarantee, USEC won't be able to obtain private
> financing, company officials said.
>
> The delay is adding to the project's overall cost, which is about
> $3.5 billion, USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle told The Dispatch.
> The company has spent about $1.4 billion so far, including the
> construction of a new facility.
>
> Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has said he intends to speed up
> the process of approving loan guarantees, but only one has been
> issued.
> In late
> March, Chu's department signed off on a $535 million loan guarantee
> for a solar-panel manufacturing plant to be built by California-based
> Solyndra.
>
> USEC's project, announced five years ago, is supposed to open in
> 2011 and employ about 400. Enriched uranium from the plant would be
> used in generating electricity at nuclear power plants.
>
> Work on the plant has slowed, and the prospect of mothballing it
> isn't far off, said Stuckle told the newspaper. She declined to
> specify when the project could be shut down.
>
> "This is a serious time issue. We cannot get enough funding
> absent the loan guarantee," Stuckle said.
>
> Rob Portman, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate and a
> former congressman from Cincinnati whose district included Piketon,
> recently wrote to President Barack Obama urging that the loan
> guarantee be granted quickly.
>
> Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland also wrote to Obama in March,
> saying that "without timely approval of the loan guarantee, the many
> thousands of new jobs currently being created will be delayed or
> perhaps lost."
>
> Obama was supportive when he campaigned in southern Ohio last
> year.
>
> The Piketon site is where the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion
> Plant enriched uranium during the Cold War.
>
> Cleanup of the site is still going on, and just last week Gov.
> Ted
> Strickland and other politicians announced plans by Duke Energy and
> the French nuclear energy company Areva to build a $10 billion nuclear
> power plant there over the next 10 years.