The Paducah Area Community Reuse Organization expects the U.S. Department of Energy to spend about $359 million on the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant cleanup for 2015.
PACRO Director Charlie Martin says $89 million left over from last year will roll over to join the 2015 allocation of $270 million dollars. He says this is higher than what DOE generally allocates annually to the PGDP cleanup, which is good for PACRO.
“The more money we have, the more cleanup we accomplish, the more opportunities there are for PACRO to benefit from asset transfer or from reuse of facilities.”
Martin says he is concerned, though, by left over money not spent within the fiscal year.
“If we don’t expend the money that congress appropriates for us in a given year that it will have a detrimental effect in trying to get funding for the subsequent years.”
Martin says the uranium market is up. He hopes that bodes well for Global Laser Enrichment continued negotiations with the DOE for the purchase of depleted uranium tails and use of the site.
PACRO is tasked with mitigating the closure of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, pushing for federal clean-up dollars, and promoting the former uranium enrichment site for future development.
