NYTimes - USEC has been trying to develop a new technology to replace the 1940s-era system that it uses to enrich uranium for use in civilian nuclear reactors. It wanted a loan guarantee from the Energy Department, but the department felt that its demonstration plant in Piketon, Ohio, was not ready for prime time.
For one thing, some of its centrifuges were damaged in a power failure,revealing safety problems.
...On Friday, when the House passed a spending bill that is meant to resolve most spending questions for the current fiscal year, it did not include authority for the Energy Department to transfer $150 million, the amount that USEC and the Energy Department had wanted for this year.
Paul Jacobson, a spokesman for USEC, said the company was “still working with the Department of Energy and the Ohio delegation to see if there’s any method to get that funding.’’
“We’re disappointed that the House refused to back funding,’’ said Damien LaVera, an Energy Department spokesman. He called it “a blow to the future of our domestic nuclear industry’’
Please read full at: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/a-uranium-project-in-the-political-cross-hairs/
