USEC and The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) have launched a new company, American Centrifuge Manufacturing (ACM), to manufacture and assemble centrifuge machines for USEC's American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The company based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will also provide spare parts and maintenance for the ACP project.
The move comes one week after USEC announced that its application for a $2 billion Department of Energy loan guarantee for the ACP had completed the due diligence and negotiation stage of the process.
American Centrifuge Manufacturing, established on 1 May, will be based at USEC's American Centrifuge Technology and Manufacturing Center, which has been operated by Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Clinch River, LLC since 2007. Approximately 160 B&W and USEC employees working at the Oak Ridge facility have been assigned to the new company.
In a statement USEC said that “Once the U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee and other centrifuge project funding needed to complete the American Centrifuge Plant is secured and the project is remobilized, the total number of ACM workers is expected to grow to about 600 as ACM ramps up to the full manufacturing rate.”
Carl Durham, who serves as president of Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Clinch River, is now president and general manager of the new company. Larry Cutlip, who is USEC's director of centrifuge manufacturing, is vice president.
