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The approximately 3.8 million SWU capacity of the American Centrifuge Plant is the expected output from the approximately 11,500 AC100 machines that will be housed in the existing buildings at Piketon.
Essentially all of the buildings required for the commercial plant were constructed in Piketon in the 1980s by DOE. These include two process buildings, a centrifuge recycle/assembly building and a uranium feed and withdrawal facility.
Fluor Corporation is managing the engineering, procurement and construction activities related to these structures, process systems to integrate and support the centrifuge machines and cascades, and the balance of plant infrastructure. Construction and refurbishment work by Fluor began in May 2007. Design, procurement, refurbishment and construction activities for these facilities will continue through 2011.
Current construction includes building out the balance of plant, including electric, telecommunications, cooling and water distribution; preparing the production building floor for machine mounts; pouring foundations for a new boiler building; and refurbishing the feed and withdrawal facility where uranium hexafluoride will be heated to a gaseous state before introduction into the centrifuge cascades and the subsequent withdrawal of the low enriched uranium product. USEC also expects to begin installation of service modules that provide the piping and electrical infrastructure for the centrifuge machines later this year.
A comprehensive project budget is underway and is expected to be released in the second quarter of 2008. USEC expects this project budget will be about $3.5 billion. That amount includes money already spent on the project and estimates for cost escalation, but does not include costs for financing or financial assurances.