Each of the massive steel cylinders contains between 10 and 12 metric tons of DUF6, which is a coproduct of the uranium enrichment process. BWCS will move 150 cylinders to USEC this month in support of an agreement that will extend uranium enrichment operations at the USEC Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant for a year. The Department of Energy approved that agreement Tuesday following approvals by other participants including Energy Northwest, Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
Ownership of the material in the cylinders was transferred from DOE to Energy Northwest, a municipal corporation of the state of Washington. Energy Northwest and TVA will use the reenriched material in nuclear reactors. The DOE owns approximately 62,000 remaining cylinders at Paducah KY and Portsmouth, OH. BWCS operates plants at both sites for the DOE to convert the DUF6 to a more stable uranium oxide form for disposal or long-term storage.
B&W Conversion Services, LLC, is a single purpose company formed by Babcock & Wilcox and URS in 2011. Headquartered in Lexington, KY, BWCS was created to safely and effectively operate the Department of Energy’s depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facilities in Paducah, KY, and Piketon, OH.
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New USEC Agreement Reached
