Senator Domenici Proposes Uranium Enrichment Facility in Southeastern New Mexico
CCNS Weekly News Update
March 5, 2003

* Senator Pete Domenici recently renewed his proposal to establish a uranium enrichment facility near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (or WIPP). Domenici sent a letter to George Dials, the former manager of WIPP, who is currently the head of Louisiana Energy Services (or LES), which is primarily considering locating the facility in Tennessee. Domenici claimed that the area near Carlsbad has "superb attributes for [the] facility."

Enriched uranium is key to increasing nuclear energy production in the U.S. Uranium enrichment involves concentration of one particular isotope of natural uranium for fuel in nuclear power plants. LES is working with Urenco, Incorporated, which is a European uranium enrichment service company, to establish its first facility in the U.S. The materials are currently produced at the former Department of Energy sites at Portsmouth, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky. However, the process used at those facilities is older and more costly than the process used by Urenco.

The project has met with resistance in Tennessee. LES and Urenco evaluated a site in the Carlsbad area previously and found it unsuitable for their purposes. However, Domenici's letter attempts to reassure them that "...Many other sites could have been proposed for consideration in this general area, and I welcome your interest in re-exploring the other candidate sites if your progress in Tennessee is stymied."

Domenici promoted New Mexico's familiarity with nuclear technologies, claiming that the location of Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories and WIPP make New Mexico suitable for another nuclear facility. Domenici claimed, "Nuclear technologies are well understood and appreciated in this area."




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