The depleted uranium will be enriched at a proposed GLE facility to produce natural uranium, which will be used for production of fuel for civil nuclear reactors.
The billion-dollar facility at Paducah is expected to create 800 to 1,200 jobs during the construction and operational phases.
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said: “This agreement furthers the Energy Department’s environmental cleanup mission while reducing cleanup costs, creating good local jobs, and supporting an economical enrichment enterprise for our energy needs.
“The sale contributes to two key Energy Department mission areas – to fulfill the federal government’s responsibility to manage the safe storage and disposal of nuclear materials and to enable nuclear power, America’s largest source of zero-carbon energy and an important enabler for reduced greenhouse gas emissions.”
The Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF), which is located adjacent to the Energy Department site, will be financed and constructed by GLE.
GLE will also be responsible for owning and operating the facility, which will be a commercial uranium enrichment production facility under a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license.
DOE’s inventory of depleted uranium is stored in approximately 65,000 specialized storage cylinders at the Department’s Paducah and Portsmouth (Ohio) sites.
Currently, the Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) is in the process of deactivating the plant in preparation for decontamination and decommissioning.
DOE said: “The mission of the Office of Environmental Management (EM) is to complete the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy brought about from five decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research.”
