USEC contracts Russia's TENEX for low enriched uranium supply.

WASHINGTON (Itar-Tass) - USEC enrichment company has signed
a multi-year contract with Russia's Techsnabexport (TENEX) for the 10-year
supply of low-enriched uranium (LEU) beginning in 2013, the company said
in a statement adding cooperation under the Megatons to Megawatts program
has been going on since 1993.
The new contract will provide USEC with continued access to Russian
enriched uranium, which currently constitutes about one-half of USEC's
supply source. Unlike the Megatons to Megawatts program, the quantities
supplied under the new contract will come from Russia's commercial
enrichment activities rather than from downblending of excess Russian
weapons material, USEC said.
Following approval of the new supply contract by Russia's atomic
agency Rosatom, USEC and TENEX expect to conduct a feasibility study to
explore the possible deployment of an enrichment plant in the United
States employing Russian centrifuge technology.
Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko said the new "large-scale contract
fills in the zone of uncertainty" after the Megatons to Megawatts program
is completed. The deal is expected to give Russia 2.8 billion dollars.
The Megatons to Megawatts Program is a unique, commercially financed
government-industry partnership in which bomb-grade uranium from
dismantled Russian nuclear warheads is being recycled into LEU used to
produce fuel for American nuclear power plants. USEC and TENEX implement
this 20-year, $8 billion program at no cost to taxpayers. This program is
on track to complete the downblending of the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear
warheads into commercial nuclear fuel by the program's conclusion at the
end of 2013.