....... The operator of a Cold War-era plant in western Kentucky that supplies enriched uranium to nuclear power plants said Friday it planned to cease production after federal energy officials decided to end its work, putting more than 1,000 workers out of high-paying jobs with benefits. The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is the only government-owned and operated uranium enrichment facility in the country. It's operated by USEC Inc. under a lease deal with the U.S. Department of Energy...>> It's anticipated that plant workers will receive severance packages, Derryberry said. The average salary for plant workers, including benefits, is $125,000. Paducah Mayor Gayle Kaler said the Kentucky plant deserves the same treatment given by DOE to similar facilities, where she said millions have been spent on cleanup to make the sites viable for future work. ..>> The plant stores 40,000 cylinders of depleted uranium. "Paducah is a strong, resilient city full of dependable, creative people," Beshear said. "We are confident that those characteristics will carry citizens through this difficult time." McConnell released a joint statement with fellow Kentucky Republicans U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield expressing disappointment that the DOE had been unable to reach an agreement for at least another four months of work. The three have requested a meeting with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz...>> "It's kind of shocking because there was profit to be made," said Mike Myers, a nearly 23-year plant worker and a vice president with a steelworkers union local representing about 580 plant employees. "It looks to me like DOE is throwing us all under the bus," he said. Soft demand for enriched uranium, stemming partly from the disaster in Japan when a tsunami crippled a nuclear plant, coupled with steep production costs triggered the decision, USEC spokesman Jeremy Derryberry said. Production will be phased out in the next month...>> The U.S. Department of Energy rejects a proposal that would have extended operations at the Uranium Plant in Paducah. The decision means more than 1,000 employees will loose their jobs...>>

Paducah Uranium Plant Laying Off a Thousand Workers

By: Chris Veech

 

 

 

 

 

Updated: May 24, 20. http://tristatehomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=617882

The U.S. Department of Energy rejects a proposal that would have extended operations at the Uranium Plant in Paducah. The decision means more than 1,000 employees will loose their jobs.

The plant had been scheduled to close last year, but a temporary deal with the Tennessee Valley Authority and another utility company allowed them to enrich uranium.

Governor Steve Beshear called the news "disappointing and painful."  Some employees at the plant are already getting layoff notices. 

 

USEC seeks future operations at Paducah

 http://theenergycollective.com/dan-yurman/50683/usec-seeks-future-operations-paducah

Revenue has dropped and the future of the new enrichment plant isn't on a firm financial footing

This blog post is an expanded version of my coverage published in Fuel Cycle Week V10:N408 January 20, 2011, by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC.

USEC (NYSE:USU) announced Jan 11 it plans to extend the operation of the Paducah, KY, Gaseous Diffusion uranium enrichment plant beyond May 2012. The firm said it would make a final decision to go forward by May 2011. The future operation of the plant would use depleted uranium (UF6) inventory from the Department of Energy.

USEC has turned a few heads with this move which took place without a parallel announcement from the Department of Energy. The outdated plant, which devours electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority, has long been something of a white elephant, especially considering USEC’s ongoing financial struggles.

But in a unique twist, USEC said it was exploring a proposal to re-enrich UF6 from Department of Energy’s excess uranium inventory. Because the material, which DOE stores in cylinders on USEC’s Paducah and Piketon sites, has no market value in its current form, DOE could part with it at no cost, and after re-enriching it USEC could sell it at a significant profit. This, USEC said, could help make the plant more economic.

No comment from DOE

The Department of Energy told FCW through a spokesperson, "DOE has not yet received a specific proposal from USEC, but will give due consideration to any proposal we receive in the future."

The Piketon, OH, plant has 169,000 metric tons of depleted UF6. The Paducah, KY, plant has 330,000 metric tons depleted UF6.

USEC said in a statement the amount of natural uranium that would be sold from extending operations at Paducah, would be equivalent to 2.5% of global demand. According to the OECD, global production of uranium in 2010 was estimated to be 55,000 tonnes.

A 2.5% slice of global production in 2010 would be equal to 1,375 tonnes or 3.08 million pounds. At the current $62/lb spot price that 2.5% slice could potentially be worth $191 million in new revenue for USEC. Over four years, with an assumption of steady increases in spot prices, the production could be worth in the range of $800 million-$1 billion.

A grim financial reality for USEC is the expected end in 2013 of the Megatons-to-Megawatts program to process Russian HEU blended down into LEU for use as nuclear fuel for the U.S. fleet of 104 nuclear reactors. Approximately 40% of all fuel used in U.S. reactors comes from the Russian program according to the Energy Information Administration.

The Russians are not waiting for the end of the program to ink new reactor fuel deals with U.S. utilities. In August 2009 Exelon, Constellation Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., AmerenUE; and Luminant signed a $2 billion package of contracts with Russia's Techsnabexport (Tenex) for delivery between 2011 and 2020.

Revenue and profits down in 2010

It follows the reason USEC is planning to extend operations of the Paducah plant is to boost revenue and not just for the bottom line. It must show DOE, which is conducting a due diligence review of USEC's finances, that its balance sheet is on a firm footing.

The problem is the firm's 10-Q form, filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission for the nine month period ending September 30, 2010, shows a steep drop in revenue and profits compared to the same nine month period ending September 30, 2009.

USEC Gross Revenue and Profits

All figures in $ millions

Source: USEC 10-Q Nov 2010	Nine months ending 09/30/10	Nine months ending 9/30/09
	Revenue
SWU	$1,002	$1,266
Uranium	$164	$150
Government	$203	$153
	Profits
	$109	$159

According to these numbers, USEC's revenues came in $200 million lower for the first nine months of 2010 than for the similar period in 2009. Gross profits were down $50 million. The company recorded a $1.5 million net loss for the 2010 period compared to $9 million in net profits for the same period in 2009.

Some of the reasons for the changes include a $41 million increase in the cost of performing on government contracts. Another factor is that payables under the Russian contract increased by $63 million. Despite producing uranium for sale to be used as commercial nuclear fuel worth $1.473 billion, the firm still had $885 million, or 60% of the inventory, sitting unsold on September 30, 2010.

Success in passing DOE due diligence depends on good numbers

The issues of revenue and cash flow are crucial to USEC's negotiations with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a $2 billion loan guarantee for the new American Centrifuge Facility (ACF) USEC is building in Piketon, OH. In late October 2010, DOE provided USEC a draft term sheet for a conditional commitment for the loan guarantee. The action followed a technical review of progress on maturing USEC's centrifuge technologies.

DOE must now complete a due diligence review of USEC's financial prospects and negotiate terms and conditions for the loan guarantee. There are big stakes riding on the decision by DOE to issue a conditional commitment for the $2 billion in federal insurance for current and future investors in the ACF.

In May 2010 two leading nuclear manufacturing firms, Toshiba and Babcock & Wilcox, made parallel $100 million investments which, when they mature, will give these firms a one-third stake in USEC. The $200 million in funds from these two investors are being released in three tranches.

The first for $75 million was provided on the execution of the initial agreement. The next two cash distributions require progress in getting a conditional and a final commitment from DOE for the loan guarantee. Even with a $2 billion loan guarantee, and early stage financing from high quality investors, USEC still needs to attract more investors to build the ACF which is estimated to cost $3 billion.

Paul Jacobson, USEC VP for Public Affairs, told FCW if all goes well obtaining the loan guarantee and lining up new investors, the plant could be at full capacity by 2013 producing 5.2 million pounds U3O8 equivalent a year. When complete, the ACF will house 11,000 gas centrifuges.

Jacobson said getting investors lined up is a key success factor for DOE's due diligence process and whether it will decide to issue the loan guarantee.

"In order to obtain a DOE loan guarantee, we will need to demonstrate that sufficient capital is available to complete the project. We have initiated discussions with Japanese export credit agencies regarding financing a portion of the cost of building the plant. Their willingness to provide financing is closely tied with our obtaining a DOE loan guarantee.”

Does USEC have an edge in Washington?

In years gone by USEC has relied on influence in Washington to make the case for continued support for its operations. Until recently, USEC relied on the influence of Ohio's now former senior Senator George Voinovitch who was during his time in the Senate an advocate for USEC and nuclear energy in general.

Ohio democratic Senator Sherrod Brown serves on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and, more importantly, on its subcommittee on Energy & Water Development. It could be an advantage for USEC to have advocacy for its projects from Brown with a Democrat in the White House and Democrats controlling the Senate.

Ohio's new republican senator Rob Portman is at the bottom of the seniority list for committee assignments. He does not serve on the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee which has the lead policy role for DOE programs.

According to the campaign finance tracking organization Open Secrets, in 2010 USEC's political action committee gave $5,000 to Portman and $2,500 to Sherrod Brown. 

Additional smaller contributions were made to so-called "soft money" organizations. These reports may be incomplete so it isn't clear how much USEC bet on one party or another or simply split the difference.

Environmental groups question USEC finances

Not everyone is convinced of the likelihood of USEC's rosy scenario for a path to award of a loan guarantee. The Ohio Sierra Club raised questions in early January about the financial viability of USEC's plans to build the ACF. In a public meeting called by the NRC in response to comments filed by the Sierra Club, the group asked what would happen to the ACF, and the uranium in it, if USEC failed to close on financing to build the new plant.

Angie Dudit, a spokesperson for USEC, responded that decommissioning funds are set aside for this purpose.

Another environmental group attending the meeting questioned whether USEC will be able to compete for global business with the new enrichment plant. A check of an update on the ACF posted on USEC's web site said " USEC has secured $3.1 billion in committed sales for the output of the ACP."

USEC also said on the same web site it has "worked under a March 2010 cooperative agreement with DOE for pro-rata cost sharing support for continued American Centrifuge activities with a total estimated cost of $90 million. The work scope covers continued operation of the AC100 cascade, manufacturing of additional AC100 centrifuge machines, and refinement to the rotor tube manufacturing process in preparation for full production."

USEC continues to wax optimistically about the future of the plant. Spokesman Jacobson told FCW:

“With respect to schedule, we anticipate it will require 18 to 24 months to begin initial commercial operations upon receiving financing to complete the plant. We also anticipate that it will require 30 to 36 months to complete the plant after initial commercial operations. We continue to work with our EPC contractor and suppliers to reduce the deployment schedule for the ACP.”

Back to Paducah
Another factor affecting the financial viability of extending operations at Paducah is the cost of electricity. The gaseous diffusion plant gobbles juice from TVA that spins the billing meters at a fearsome pace making USEC one of TVA's top customers. The current power agreement with TVA expires in 2012 which sets up negotiations for a new one as a critical success factor to keep the Paducah plant in operation.

Another third factor is how uranium producers in the U.S. will react to USEC's announcement. There is some history in this area. In August 2009 an announcement by DOE Secretary Steven Chu that the agency planned to sell $150-200 million a year in re-enriched uranium for four years produced howls of protests from uranium producers.
USEC's target of "2.5% of global supply" puts the $191 million in estimated revenue from that production right in the middle of the August 2009 target issued by Sec. Chu. At that time the spot price was hovering at $40/lb.

Now 18 months later the response from uranium producers is more muted. Paul Goranson, CEO of Cameco U.S., who also leads the Uranium Producers of America (UPA), told FCW he is "not thrilled with DOE's inventory being used at anyone's discretion."

Goranson said he is not opposed in principle to re-enrichment of the depleted uranium. However, he said it could "be a real problem" if the sales of re-enriched uranium start to impact the spot price.

Goranson added that some activity by USEC might be good to help DOE lower its holdings of aging UF6 canisters which would reduce the environmental liabilities associated with them.

On that point the UPA and USEC seem to be in agreement.
"DOE has a unique opportunity while the plant is still operating that would be a win-win for everyone,” said Steve Penrod, Paducah plant general manager and USEC vice president.

“Re-enrichment would reduce DOE’s decontamination and decommissioning costs while generating revenue for the federal government and maintaining 1,200 good, local jobs. From the American taxpayers’ standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to extract the valuable uranium; and the time to act is now while Paducah’s capacity is available and uranium prices are strong.”

Impact on DOE deconversion operations

On Dec 8, DOE awarded a $428 million, five-year contract to Babcock & Wilcox, for operation of the Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) facilities at DOE sites in Paducah, KY, and Piketon, OH. The facilities are designed to covert 700,000 metric tonnes of DUF6 into stable chemical form for disposition or re-use. The contract also calls for disposing of 62,000 cylinders.

A DOE official told FCW on background the agency has no assessment of what, if any, impact USEC's plans to re-enrich DUF6 at Paducah would have on the deconversion contract. The official said any plan by USEC to re-enrich depleted uranium would require DOE approval. Until USEC submits a specific proposal, DOE said it couldn't comment any further on the company's plans or potential impacts on other DOE contracts.

# # #

Idaho Samizdat ~ http://djysrv.blogspot.com

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Authored by:

Dan Yurman

Dan Yurman publishes a blog on nuclear energy titled 'Idaho Samizdat' http://djysrv.blogspot.com. It covers the nuclear energy industry globally including new reactor investments, economics, politics, and technologies. He is a frequent contributor to the ANS Nuclear Cafe http://ansnuclearcafe.org and to Fuel Cycle Week http://fuelcycleweek.com

 

Feds pull plug on Ky. uranium plant and 1,000 jobs

Modified: May 24, 2013 at 6:15 pm • Published: May 24, 2013 • 0

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — http://gazette.com/feds-pull-plug-on-ky.-uranium-plant-and-1000-jobs/article/feed/7779

The operator of a Cold War-era plant in western Kentucky that supplies enriched uranium to nuclear power plants said Friday it planned to cease production after federal energy officials decided to end its work, putting more than 1,000 workers out of high-paying jobs with benefits.

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is the only government-owned and operated uranium enrichment facility in the country. It's operated by USEC Inc. under a lease deal with the U.S. Department of Energy.

USEC executive Robert Van Namen said the company pursued potential opportunities to continue the enrichment work, but DOE concluded "there were not sufficient benefits to the taxpayers to extend enrichment."

"I am extremely disappointed to say we must now begin to take steps to cease enrichment," USEC's senior vice president and chief operating officer said.

Department officials said they looked at possibly keeping the Paducah plant operating longer, but couldn't reach an agreement that was "viable for us as responsible stewards for the taxpayers."

Last May, the plant faced closure until officials reached a deal that gave it a reprieve for another year. Under that deal, the plant enriched depleted uranium for Tennessee Valley Authority and Energy Northwest, a utility in Washington state.

The plant opened in 1952 to develop enriched uranium for military reactors and to produce nuclear weapons. The plant began selling uranium for commercial reactors in the 1960s, and has been operated since the late 1990s by Bethesda, Md.,-based USEC.

Local union officials criticized the Energy Department's decision.

"It's kind of shocking because there was profit to be made," said Mike Myers, a nearly 23-year plant worker and a vice president with a steelworkers union local representing about 580 plant employees.

"It looks to me like DOE is throwing us all under the bus," he said.

Soft demand for enriched uranium, stemming partly from the disaster in Japan when a tsunami crippled a nuclear plant, coupled with steep production costs triggered the decision, USEC spokesman Jeremy Derryberry said. Production will be phased out in the next month.

"We've been telegraphing for a long time that the plant had a limited lifetime," Derryberry said. "That was only accelerated by what happened in Japan."

Japan was an important market for the Paducah plant's enriched uranium, but nearly all of Japan's workable reactors have been offline since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami triggered multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

"What that essentially does is take a huge chunk of demand out of the market, at least in the near term," Derryberry said. "With no demand, there's an excess of supply. Prices go down. We just haven't been able to find additional customers for the plant's capacity."

Employees were notified of the decision in a meeting about 6:30 a.m. Friday, ending years of uncertainty about their jobs.

"It was sort of anticlimactic in the sense that you knew it was coming," said electrical supervisor Barry Miller, 58, who started work at the plant in 1977. "There was almost a sense of relief in a very strange sense. I think that was true of a lot of employees, where they just wanted to know. ... It's not a joyful relief. You can imagine what it's doing to people who have families and literally don't know what they're going to do."

Miller, whose daughter-in-law also will lose her job at the plant, said Paducah doesn't have another plant with high-paying jobs to absorb the furloughed workers.

"There's going to be a whole lot of people debating leaving town and trying to go someplace else," he said. "That's what I worry about more than anything. I certainly don't want my son and his wife to move."

Besides the downturn in demand for its enriched uranium, the Paducah plant also was beset by high production costs mostly because of the vast amounts of electricity used in the process, Derryberry said.

The company plans to turn the plant site back over to the Energy Department sometime in 2014. Until then, some workers will remain to manage inventory and meet customer orders and to prepare the site for the handover.

DOE will try to locate another company to operate the facility, department spokesman Tim Echelard said.

"Right now there are a couple of different options out there," he said.

Jim Key, another vice president with the steelworkers union local, said the plant remained productive and efficient, and was an important cog in meeting the nation's energy demands.

"This is the last remaining U.S. government-owned uranium enrichment facility in our nation," he said. "It makes no sense to me why we as a country would even consider shutting down this facility, and thereby having to rely on foreign sources."

It's anticipated that plant workers will receive severance packages, Derryberry said. The average salary for plant workers, including benefits, is $125,000.

Paducah Mayor Gayle Kaler said the Kentucky plant deserves the same treatment given by DOE to similar facilities, where she said millions have been spent on cleanup to make the sites viable for future work.

"We strongly urge that our economic development team be given the opportunity to secure property for future use for our trained workforce," she said.

Reaction was swift from Kentucky top political leaders.

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear lamented the DOE's decision. Beshear called the news disappointing and painful even though he said it had been expected.

"We know there are 1,100 very talented and hardworking people at that facility, and we had hoped that an alternative might have been found to keep it open," the governor said. "As disheartening as this news is, we pledge our full assistance and support to the employees and community to absorb this loss and find new opportunities for those skilled and experienced workers."

The plant stores 40,000 cylinders of depleted uranium.

"Paducah is a strong, resilient city full of dependable, creative people," Beshear said. "We are confident that those characteristics will carry citizens through this difficult time."

McConnell released a joint statement with fellow Kentucky Republicans U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield expressing disappointment that the DOE had been unable to reach an agreement for at least another four months of work. The three have requested a meeting with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.

Feds pull plug on Ky. uranium plant and 1,000 jobs

http://newsok.com/feds-pull-plug-on-ky.-uranium-plant-and-1000-jobs/article/feed/545793

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The operator of a Cold War-era plant in western Kentucky that supplies enriched uranium to nuclear power plants said Friday it planned to cease production after federal energy officials decided to end its work, putting more than 1,000 workers out of high-paying jobs with benefits.

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is the only government-owned and operated uranium enrichment facility in the country. It's operated by USEC Inc. under a lease deal with the U.S. Department of Energy.

USEC executive Robert Van Namen said the company pursued potential opportunities to continue the enrichment work, but DOE concluded "there were not sufficient benefits to the taxpayers to extend enrichment."

"I am extremely disappointed to say we must now begin to take steps to cease enrichment," USEC's senior vice president and chief operating officer said.

Department officials said they looked at possibly keeping the Paducah plant operating longer, but couldn't reach an agreement that was "viable for us as responsible stewards for the taxpayers."

Last May, the plant faced closure until officials reached a deal that gave it a reprieve for another year. Under that deal, the plant enriched depleted uranium for Tennessee Valley Authority and Energy Northwest, a utility in Washington state.

The plant opened in 1952 to develop enriched uranium for military reactors and to produce nuclear weapons. The plant began selling uranium for commercial reactors in the 1960s, and has been operated since the late 1990s by Bethesda, Md.,-based USEC.

Local union officials criticized the Energy Department's decision.

"It's kind of shocking because there was profit to be made," said Mike Myers, a nearly 23-year plant worker and a vice president with a steelworkers union local representing about 580 plant employees.

"It looks to me like DOE is throwing us all under the bus," he said.
Soft demand for enriched uranium, stemming partly from the disaster in Japan when a tsunami crippled a nuclear plant, coupled with steep production costs triggered the decision, USEC spokesman Jeremy Derryberry said. Production will be phased out in the next month.

"We've been telegraphing for a long time that the plant had a limited lifetime," Derryberry said. "That was only accelerated by what happened in Japan."

Japan was an important market for the Paducah plant's enriched uranium, but nearly all of Japan's workable reactors have been offline since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami triggered multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

"What that essentially does is take a huge chunk of demand out of the market, at least in the near term," Derryberry said. "With no demand, there's an excess of supply. Prices go down. We just haven't been able to find additional customers for the plant's capacity."
Employees were notified of the decision in a meeting about 6:30 a.m. Friday, ending years of uncertainty about their jobs.

"It was sort of anticlimactic in the sense that you knew it was coming," said electrical supervisor Barry Miller, 58, who started work at the plant in 1977. "There was almost a sense of relief in a very strange sense. I think that was true of a lot of employees, where they just wanted to know. ... It's not a joyful relief. You can imagine what it's doing to people who have families and literally don't know what they're going to do."

Kentucky Operator to Cease Enrichment of Uranium

By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: May 24, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/25/business/usec-to-shut-uranium-enrichment-plant-in-kentucky.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — The only American-owned plant for enriching uranium, a cold war relic near Paducah, Ky., will be shut down next month, its operator said on Friday. The closing could pose a problem for the American nuclear weapons arsenal over time but is not likely to affect civilian nuclear electric plants. 

The plant, opened in 1954 by the Atomic Energy Commission, was becoming uncompetitive in the market for uranium enrichment. The federal government was subsidizing the plant for the last year under a barter deal in which it provided uranium to some of the operator’s customers so they would continue to use the plant. But the Energy Department decided not to extend it. 

The plant separates two forms of uranium that exist in nature, chemically identical but differing in their ability to sustain nuclear fission, through a process called enrichment. Paducah uses gaseous diffusion technology, which was developed during World War II to make the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Gaseous diffusion uses about 20 times the electricity as centrifuges, the technology that supplanted it. 

The announcement was made by USEC, the nuclear operator formerly known as the U.S. Enrichment Corporation, which was spun off from the federal government in 1998. The plant is still owned by the Energy Department, which will face a steep bill for decontaminating it and tearing it down. The roughly 1,000 people who work at the Paducah plant are likely to lose their jobs. 

USEC, based in Bethesda, Md., said it had a large inventory of enriched uranium and would continue to import enriched uranium from Russia for sale to American utilities. The Russian program began with uranium from decommissioned nuclear bombs but will soon be using uranium enriched by the Russians for commercial uses. The American market is also supplied by a European-owned centrifuge plant in New Mexico. 

Andrea Jennetta, the publisher of Fuel Cycle Week, a trade publication, said, “USEC is almost like a broker, a middleman, now.” But she said the civilian market was well supplied and the source did not make much difference. 

The worldwide market for enriching uranium has been weakened, in part, by the shutdown of Japanese reactors after the Fukushima accident in March 2011. 

The complication of the Paducah closing, though, is the weapons program. The United States has a large surplus of enriched uranium, but the bombs need another material, tritium, a form of hydrogen and the “h” in “h-bomb.” 

The government closed its last reactor for making tritium in 1988, but it is now made in a civilian power reactor owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Under international rules, though, that reactor must be powered with uranium enriched in the United States. There is enough American fuel on hand to run the reactor making tritium for years. 

The government stopped making highly enriched uranium, used for weapons and the propulsion of submarines and aircraft carriers, years ago. But it does not need more for warheads, and it has a big inventory for submarine use. 

USEC has been trying to develop an advanced centrifuge, in Portsmouth, Ohio, at a site formerly used for a gaseous diffusion plant. It has applied twice to the Energy Department for a $2 billion loan guarantee to build the plant, and been sent back to the drawing boards both times by the department because of technical concerns. 

Members of Congress with USEC plants in or near their districts have tried to help, but on Friday, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; Rand Paul, Kentucky’s other senator; and Ed Whitfield, the Republican member of the House from the area, seemed to accept the decision and asked for help from the Energy Department in developing new sources of employment. 

USEC has built a pilot-scale enrichment plant, with help from the Energy Department, with the idea that if it cannot work as a commercial product, the government will take it over to maintain a small enrichment capability for national security purposes. 

Jeremy T. Derryberry, a spokesman for USEC, said the company had lined up $2 billion in private financing to commercialize the pilot program. But it still needs the government loan to build the project.

Paducah will be shut down over the next month, Mr. Derryberry said.

A version of this article appeared in print on May 25, 2013, on page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Operator To Cease Enrichment Of Uranium.