Uranium Enrichment Facility Planned for N.M.

Licensing for a new uranium enrichment plant in Lea County is on track and underway, with tentitive plans to start construction on the $1.4 billion project in early 2006.

Owned by Louisiana Energy Services, plans are calling for an 800,000-sq.-ft. enrichment facility at a site five miles east of Eunice, N.M. Construction is expected to be completed by 2013 and should provide a healthy dose to the local economy by employing more than 400 workers.

The project must first gain approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the New Mexico Environmental Department before construction can proceed.

Plans call for thousands of gas centrifuges to concentrate the uranium and process it for use in the nation's nuclear power plants which supply about 20 percent of the country's electricity.

Louisiana Energy Services plans to let three major contracts. One is for the building's shell, another for electrical work and the third for mechanical work.

Louisiana Energy Services has hired Nuclear Technology Solutions of Cherry Hill, N.J. as the architect but no other contracts have been let.
Partners in the project include Urenco, Westinghouse Electric Co., Duke Power, Entergy and Exelon.

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