American Centrifuge Manufacturers

Rebuilding the U.S. Nuclear Industrial Base

Rebuilding America’s nuclear industrial manufacturing base is a key component of USEC’s American Centrifuge project. The highly specialized U.S. manufacturing base needed to build the AC100 did not exist but is being established with USEC’s leadership. At sites across the United States, our manufacturers have been gearing up to support the fabrication of centrifuge machines and support systems.

In August 2009, USEC began a demobilization of the American Centrifuge project due to a delay in the Department of Energy’s review of the company’s application for a loan guarantee from to help finance the completion of the plant, which has affected the manufacturing of machine parts.

USEC is working with its strategic suppliers to maintain the manufacturing infrastructure developed over the last several years in order to be in a position to ramp back up at the time additional funding is received. USEC is building a limited number of additional AC100 production machines over the next several months. This would further demonstrate the manufacturability of the AC100 design and validate the quality assurance improvements instituted in the assembly process. In order to accomplish the goal of having the core manufacturing base in place and ready to go, the project’s suppliers would selectively continue to produce components for the AC100 production machine. However, without funding, further manufacturing will be limited.

Approximately 5,000 direct and indirect jobs had been created by USEC and its suppliers building the ACP. Once completed, construction of the ACP was expected to generate more than 8,000 jobs across the country.

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The low enriched uranium produced by American Centrifuge Plant will fuel the clean, reliable operations of new and existing nuclear power plants for decades to come. USEC’s manufacturing contracts for the fabrication of centrifuge machines and plant components were expected to create a significant number of new, high-paying jobs in the United States.

The American Centrifuge Plant is expected to be the first new commercial nuclear build by a U.S. company in more than three decades. As the only U.S.-owned and U.S.-operated gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility, the American Centrifuge Plant is expected to play a major role in supporting America’s energy security and national security. The increased use of nuclear power would provide an effective means for America to reduce its dependence on foreign energy sources and on energy sources that emit harmful greenhouse gases.

America stands to gain significant economic benefits by investing in a reinvigorated nuclear industrial manufacturing base. More than one million jobs could be created in the United States if American companies capture a significant share of the growing global nuclear energy market, according to the American Council on Global Nuclear Competitiveness. USEC and its American Centrifuge manufacturers have taken the first step in this national nuclear industrial resurgence.