The Obama administration plans to close the last remaining American-owned uranium enrichment facility in the United States, even as it moves forward on a controversial nuclear deal with Iran that permits the Islamic Republic to conduct ongoing and significant uranium enrichment.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has informed Centrus Energy it will end the American Centrifuge project in Piketon, Ohio, on Sept. 30. Notices have been issued to some 235 workers that their jobs are in jeopardy.
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This is beyond belief," Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, responded in a statement. "While this administration is greenlighting uranium enrichment in Iran and legitimizing 6,000 Iranian centrifuges, they're shutting down domestic production here in America."
Wenstrup called the closure decision "a dangerous threat to our national security."
In its announcement that it will shutter American Centrifuge, the DOE announced the enrichment technologies developed at Piketon may be transferred to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
As recently as 20 years ago, the United States produced nearly 50 percent of the global supply of enriched uranium. Today, however, U.S. production accounts for only about 10 percent of the global supply, with Russia, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Holland producing the bulk of the world's enriched uranium.
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cuts in U.S. enrichment capability are "potentially causing" U.S. nuclear plants to become dependent on foreign fuel sources. U.S. enriched uranium also plays an important role in powering U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers.
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