Board May Close Uranium Plant

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Board May Close Uranium Plant

WASHINGTON (AP) - The board of directors of the U.S. Enrichment 
Corp., the world's largest supplier of fuel for civilian nuclear 
power plants, is meeting to decide whether to close one of the 
nation's two uranium enrichment plants. 

USEC already has indicated it wants to close either its Piketon, 
Ohio, or Paducah, Ky., plant. The company informed federal officials 
earlier this week that its bad credit rating can activate an escape 
clause in the agreement the company signed with the government 
requiring both facilities to remain open until 2005. 

The company gave no indication which plant its board was more 
inclined to shut down. 

The board was meeting Wednesday at USEC's headquarters in the 
Washington suburb of Bethesda, Md. Company spokeswoman Elizabeth 
Stuckle said it was possible the directors might not make a decision 
immediately and the meeting would continue into Thursday. 

About 1,900 people are employed at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion 
Plant in Ohio and about 1,700 at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, 
but a total of 625 people at the two plants are being laid off in 
July. Both plants blend uranium to the grade needed by electricity-
generating plants. 

Poor credit, low stock prices and insufficient profits have made it 
clear that drastic action would be needed to turn around the company, 
a former government enterprise that was spun off in a $1.9 billion 
stock deal in 1998. 

The government still owns the two plants but transferred its uranium 
inventory to USEC, which operates the facilities, sells the finished 
uranium to electric power plants and acts as the middleman for 
worldwide sales of uranium recycled from former Soviet warheads. 

Questions about USEC's financial viability have implications beyond 
the two communities with jobs on the line. 

The government does not want to become dependent on other nations for 
either bomb-grade uranium - in the event there ever again is a need 
to make more - or for the lower grade of uranium used by power 
plants, since about a fifth of the nation's electricity is generated 
that way. 

But the United States has a precarious domestic uranium industry. 

Mining has declined because there's less demand for raw uranium. 
There is only one company that converts raw uranium for use by the 
enrichment plants, and it describes itself as in trouble. 

The deal that made USEC an investor-owned company has been under 
attack on Capitol Hill, where some lawmakers have accused the company 
of deliberately trying to push its debt-to-earnings ratio low enough 
to get a bad credit rating so it can close a plant - an allegation 
the company rejects. 

Other lawmakers have criticized the Clinton administration, saying it 
failed to keep close tabs on the company. 

``What does the Clinton-Gore administration plan to do about the loss 
of jobs, the impact on our domestic uranium industry and our energy 
security?'' asked Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Va., chairman of the House 
Commerce Committee. ``For over a year I have been trying to get the 
administration to address these issues, and still it has failed to 
develop a plan.'' 

Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, has been working on legislation that 
would put the uranium enrichment industry back under government 
control. He also was looking for a way the government might intervene 
and stop USEC from announcing any plant-closing decision. 

USEC has blamed its declining profits on a slump in the uranium 
market that rendered the deal to resell Russian uranium from nuclear 
weapons far less lucrative than envisioned. 

The company's stock closed Tuesday down 25 cents at $4.438, well off 
a 52-week high of $14.875. 

On the Net: http://www.usec.com 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626                                      

Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html