Areva plans to build $2 billion uranium plant in Idaho

| The Associated Press

5/6/2008 - 5/6/08

BOISE, Idaho — French-owned energy services company Areva Inc. will build what it's said will be a $2 billion uranium enrichment facility near the eastern Idaho city of Idaho Falls, after winning tax concessions from the state Legislature meant to lure the plant to the region.

The plant will be built on a site near the Idaho National Laboratory, where scientists have done research into nuclear energy since the 1940s, the company said Tuesday.

A late-session push in the Idaho Legislature to extend a sales tax exemption for production equipment that handles nuclear fuel and to cap property tax valuations at the plant to $400 million helped convince the company to select Idaho.

Areva plans to add this new U.S. plant by 2014 to help compensate for a U.S. nuclear fuel supply that could shrink. A program in which Russia has been converting weapons-grade uranium to low-enriched uranium and selling it to an Areva rival expires in 2013.

"The United States needs more clean energy to support its economic growth," Michael McMurphy, Areva's president, said in a statement. "To enable us to meet those needs we have to expand our domestic nuclear infrastructure, secure our supply of enrichment services, and reduce our reliance on foreign imports. This new enrichment plant is a critical part of this process."

Before the plant is built, Areva still must get approval from local, state and national agencies, including a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct and operate the facility.

Areva selected Idaho over sites in Washington state, Ohio, Texas and New Mexico.

"While we had several attractive sites to choose from, we opted for Idaho Falls, which has strong ties to nuclear energy, and which welcomed Areva and its proposed enrichment facility to become a new member of its community," McMurphy said.

Joe Heaton, a Democratic New Mexico state senator from Carlsbad, told the Carlsbad Current-Argus that Areva decided against the southeastern New Mexico site because of a workforce shortage and concerns about the high cost of electricity.

Areva is building a similar, larger uranium enrichment plant in France.

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission took applications to build seven new commercial U.S. nuclear reactors last year, with 25 more licensing requests expected through 2009. As interest in nuclear power grows, there are two other uranium enrichment plants being built in the United States, one in southeastern New Mexico and another in Piketon, Ohio.