New
York Times: The US is entering the 21st century in terms of
uranium enrichment for its nuclear reactors. Until the 1990s,
the federal government handled uranium enrichment. When the
United States Enrichment Company (
USEC) bought the enrichment
plants from the government, the new owner continued to use
their World War IIâera systems. USEC is now
operating a demonstration facility that uses more modern
centrifuge technology. Meanwhile, two other companies have
built, or are planning to build, full-scale centrifuge-based
enrichment plants in the US:
URENCO
USA opened a plant in New Mexico in June;
Areva
plans to build one in Idaho. Centrifuges cut the amount of
electricity required to enrich uranium by about 95%.
