USEC Implements Cuts

The company that operates the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion plant says it's cutting spending and implementing layoffs at two of its locations around the country.

The United States Enrichment Corporation's headquarters in Bethesda, MD is freezing salaries, hiring, as well as undergoing a 10% staff reduction. Spokesman Paul Jacobson says these changes are a result of shifts in the national and global market.

“Changes in the enriched uranium marketplace, the issues going on in Japan and Germany with some short term slow down in the market, and the transition of the centrifuge project over in Ohio to one that is essentially a research and development program for the next two years.”

Jacobson says the cuts won't affect the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant which is home to 1,200 employees.  But that plant's future is uncertain as USEC works with federal and state lawmakers lawmakers to find options to keep the plant open including negotiating a new power contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority.