Usec has selected Babcock & Wilcox subsidiary BWX Technologies (BWXT) to perform manufacturing work in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for its American Centrifuge uranium enrichment programme. BWXT will manufacture components for centrifuge machines to be used in Usec’s American Centrifuge plant in Piketon, Ohio.
Usec expects to operate a lead cascade of centrifuge machines in the American Centrifuge Demonstration Facility in Piketon later this summer. The company is working towards beginning commercial plant operations in late 2009 and having approximately 11,500 machines deployed in 2012, which would provide about 3.8 million separative work units (SWU) of production based on current estimates of machine output and plant availability. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a construction and operating licence for the American Centrifuge plant in April and construction began in May.
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