BETHESDA, Md. - USEC Inc. (NYSE: USU) has paid $2.5 million to Silex Systems Ltd. of Australia, following the recent announcement of an Agreement of Cooperation between the United States and Australia. The Agreement makes possible ongoing development work on SILEX, a laser-based technology for enriching uranium, by allowing the transfer of classified aspects of this technology.

"Now that the two countries have an Agreement for Cooperation in place, we will move to the next phase of development of this promising technology," said William Bennett, USEC’s Vice President of Advanced Technology.

USEC is exploring SILEX as an alternative to its current gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment process. If successfully deployed, it would reduce the production cost of enriched uranium, primarily because SILEX technology requires significantly less electricity. Currently, electricity makes up the largest portion of USEC’s enrichment production costs.

A previous payment of $2.5 million, for the successful completion of an earlier phase of research and development, was made in January 2000. The sum of both payments represents the total of a milestone payment designed to support and further research efforts.

In addition to pursuing SILEX, USEC is evaluating gas centrifuge as another enrichment technology.

USEC Inc., a global energy company, is the world’s leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

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