WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry has issued a Determination permitting the Department of Energy (DOE) to continue making uranium transfers to support ongoing clean-up work at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio, while also reducing the total amount of those transfers per year from 1,600 metric tons of uranium (MTU) to 1,200 MTU.

An analysis conducted by DOE to inform this Determination found that future transfers for cleanup work at a rate of up to 1,600 MTU per year would not constitute an adverse material impact to the domestic uranium mining, conversion, and enrichment industries. After further review, and in an effort to be responsive to feedback from industry, lawmakers, labor unions, and other stakeholders, this Determination will permit uranium transfers at a reduced rate of 1,200 MTU per year. Transfers at that rate will begin after May 1, 2017, to provide funds for the cleanup mission at the Portsmouth site – resulting in no workforce reductions or impacts to ongoing work in FY 2017.

DOE has been transferring excess uranium in exchange for services at the Portsmouth site for several years, and current law requires that a new Secretarial Determination be made every two years to assess whether future planned transfers would have an adverse material impact on the domestic uranium industries. The last Secretarial Determination for uranium transfers in support of this clean-up work was issued on May 1, 2015.

A copy of the Secretarial Determination and the Department’s analysis is available HERE.