Uranium enrichment starting at federally supported demonstration project in Ohio

PIKETON, Ohio (AP) — Uranium enrichment at a facility in southern Ohio is getting underway this week. It’s a federally authorized demonstration project in Piketon, Ohio, that’s considered critical to produce the type of fuel needed for newer, more efficient nuclear reactors. Bethesda, Maryland-based Centrus Energy Corp. will be producing the high-assay, low-enriched uranium at the American Centrifuge Plant. That form of uranium contains far more of the isotope U-235 than is typically found in current nuclear reactor fuel. Officials call it the first launch of a new U.S. technology uranium enrichment plant to begin production in this country since 1954. It’ll fuel smaller and more efficient nuclear reactors that will have longer operating cycles as well as fuel for existing reactors.