PADUCAH, Ky. - USEC Inc. (NYSE: USU) announced today that its Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant recently set a new record for the most enrichment equipment operating at one time in 25 years.

“This is no small accomplishment in a facility that’s more than 50 years old,” said Steve Penrod, Paducah Plant general manager.

USEC tracks the number of “cells onstream,” which is a measure of the amount of enrichment equipment operating at any given time. When the plant is operating at higher power loads, the uranium enrichment process is more efficient with more cells online.

The record was set November 19 when the plant began operating with 172 enrichment cells for the first time in more than 25 years. The previous 171-cell record was set earlier this year.

Because the operating equipment is powered by electricity, the plant is set up to run with varying levels of equipment at different times of the year — more equipment in the fall and early winter when electricity is less expensive, and less in the summer when power can be costly.

“After reducing the amount of operating equipment last summer and focusing on routine repair and maintenance work, in September we began steadily increasing plant production levels and restarting cells that had been shut down,” Penrod said.

USEC Vice President Russ Starkey said that Paducah completed that schedule earlier than expected and then continued to focus resources on bringing additional cells onstream to maximize operating efficiency. “This was made possible by very aggressive management of cell operation and maintenance over the summer and the subsequent well-executed cell return after the summer’s lower-power operating levels,” Starkey said.

Penrod credited the great team of employees at USEC with making gains like this possible. “Our employees continue to work together to identify process improvements and enhance long-standing operating practices to improve productivity. Their commitment to those principles makes it possible to safely achieve record performance like this in a long-established production facility,” Penrod said.

The plant’s enrichment equipment is spread over four massive inter-connected buildings covering more than 74 acres. The equipment that makes up each cell weighs in excess of 500 tons and is roughly the size of two basketball courts. Completing the maintenance tasks and re-starting each cell is a complex operation that requires many hours of precisely controlled activities. This work is accomplished by highly skilled maintenance craftsmen and plant operation’s personnel, supported by numerous technicians and other professionals.

The Paducah plant enriches uranium, a key step in the production of nuclear fuel used by nuclear power plants worldwide to generate electricity. The plant is the nation’s only operating uranium enrichment facility.

USEC Inc., a global energy company, is a leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. It expects to deploy the next generation uranium enrichment technology in Piketon, Ohio – the American Centrifuge. The United States Enrichment Corporation, a subsidiary of USEC Inc., operates the uranium enrichment plant in Paducah and does contract work for the U.S. Department of Energy in Piketon.

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