DOE Releases Excess Uranium Inventory Plan

December 24, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

The plan highlights the DOE ongoing efforts to enhance national security and promote a healthy domestic nuclear infrastructure through the efficient and cost-effective management of its excess uranium inventories. The DOE has a significant inventory of uranium that is excess to national defense needs and is expensive both to manage and secure.

"The plan provides the general public and interested stakeholders more specific information and enhanced transparency with respect to DOE's preliminary plans for its excess uranium," Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis R. Spurgeon said.

"The plan will promote an efficient disposition approach that seeks to limit adverse material impacts on the domestic uranium mining, conversion and enrichment industries while maximizing the return to the U.S. government on sales of this valuable uranium."

The plan provides specific details on certain DOE excess uranium inventories and identifies transactions that are planned, under consideration or may be considered by the department for disposition of these excess uranium inventories.

It also provides a strategy for the disposition of those inventories in a manner consistent with the principles set forth in the secretary's policy statement of March 2008.

The plan addresses the disposition of the identified excess uranium inventories through potential sales or transfers, based on a combined annual quantity of no more than 10% of the annual U.S. nuclear fuel requirements, although additional quantities of uranium could be sold or transferred for special purposes, such as to supply initial cores for new reactors.

DOE sales or transfers would be conducted in a manner that is transparent and competitive, consistent with applicable legal requirements and results in receipt of reasonable value by the government, said DOE.

The DOE Excess Uranium Inventory Management Plan is available from the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy.