Piketon, Ohio uranium facility's loan plan is a no-go

[Kolesar]

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2009/07/28/usec_news.ART_ART_07-28-09_B1_SFEJP9R.html?sid=101

Piketon plant
Uranium facility's loan plan is a no-go
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 3:11 AM
By Jonathan Riskind

The Columbus Dispatch
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration will not grant a $2 billion loan guarantee for a planned uranium-enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio, causing the initiative to go into financial meltdown, the company and independent sources confirmed last night.

The U.S. Department of Energy's decision means "we are now forced to initiate steps to demobilize the project," said Elizabeth Stuckle, a spokeswoman for USEC. That's the company that is trying to build the $3.5 billion advanced-technology plant on the same site where it ran the Cold War-era uranium-enrichment facility that has been shuttered since 2001.

USEC had said recently that the Ohio project faced "demobilization" beginning as soon as August unless that federal loan guarantee was won.

But two sources, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said last night that Ohio officials were briefed by Energy Department officials about the loan guarantee status.

A high-ranking department official said USEC would not get the loan guarantee now for a variety of reasons, but could reapply in 18 months.

But being able to reapply in a year and a half is little comfort, because that long of a delay could mean "financial death" for the project, a source familiar with the briefing said.

Stuckle confirmed that the company has been advised it won't get the loan guarantee. She said the company remains convinced that its test enrichment facility has proved the technology, which enriches uranium for use as commercial nuclear power plant fuel, works and meets all the criteria for the federal loan guarantee program.
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