U.S. Firm Close to Finishing Centrifuge Cascade

A U.S. firm hopes to finish installing its first “cascade” of centrifuges within a few months as part of its plan to build the first commercial U.S. facility to enrich uranium with centrifuges, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Dec. 5, 2002).

USEC Inc. is the only U.S. company to produce enriched uranium, which it makes using outdated gaseous diffusion technology.  That method uses vast amounts of electricity, and company officials believe using centrifuges would be far more efficient (see GSN, Aug. 14, 2006).

The first cascade, to consist of up to 240 centrifuges, would be used to demonstrate the technology.  It is now under construction near Piketon, Ohio.

After completing the first cascade, USEC hopes to attract $2.3 billion from private investors to support the construction of a much larger plant that would ultimately house 11,500 centrifuges, the Post reported.  The facility would produce enriched uranium for use by nuclear plants across the globe.

The centrifuges employ the most modern designs available, company officials said.  Much larger than other centrifuges now in use in the enrichment industry, the USEC machines stand more than 40 feet tall and are about 2 feet in diameter.  The carbon-fiber cylinder walls spin faster than 1,000 mph, according to outside experts.

The machines are designed to enrich uranium four times faster than one of USEC’s main competitors, the Urenco European consortium (Dan Charles, Washington Post, April 23).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.