GOP senator: Energy Dept. dragging feet on uranium plant loan guarantee

“USEC is immediately suspending a number of contracts with suppliers and contractors and advising them that USEC may demobilize the project in November,” the company said in a news release. “As a result of these actions, approximately 800 current direct jobs associated with the American Centrifuge project could be affected.”

USEC is seeking financing under the advanced-energy loan-guarantee program authorized in a major 2005 energy law.

The 2009 stimulus bill expanded the loan-guarantee program with a specific renewable energy funding initiative under which Solyndra ultimately won financing, although the solar company had applied during the George W. Bush administration. DOE also has a separate program that provides loans for advanced vehicle technology projects.

USEC CEO John Welch said in a release that the company remains hopeful and that its two major investors — Toshiba Corp. and The Babcock & Wilcox Co. — remain supportive as well.

“Working with our strategic investors, we expect October to be a month of intense interaction with the DOE so we can continue to deploy this innovative American technology — one that is critical to the nuclear fuel cycle and to our energy and national security,” he said. “Absent a conditional commitment by the end of October, layoffs of employees and further actions with suppliers are likely to occur.”

Portman said the USEC project has been vetted well. The company first applied for the loan guarantee in 2008.

“USEC and its strategic partners, Babcock & Wilcox and Toshiba, have gone through round after round of review, answering the questions asked of them by the Office of Management and Budget, DOE and outside analysts,” Portman said, accusing the Obama administration of dragging its feet. “They have answered requests from DOE including: shoring up additional private investment, improving the management of the project and demonstrating the reliability of the technology through additional run time.”

This post was updated at 12:15 p.m.