BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2008--USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU) awarded an engineering, procurement, construction and construction management services contract to Fluor Corporation totaling approximately $1 billion for USEC's American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.
The contract is consistent with the previously announced $3.5 billion project budget for the American Centrifuge Plant. Under the new contract, which runs from 2008 to 2012, Fluor will be reimbursed for costs plus a fixed fee. Fluor can also earn an incentive fee based on cost savings produced.
In May 2004, USEC awarded Fluor a contract to provide design, engineering, procurement and construction services for the American Centrifuge Demonstration Facility and to provide initial design and construction services for the American Centrifuge Plant. Since that time, substantial progress has been made toward deployment of the American Centrifuge involving design and construction work on the process buildings, feed and withdrawal facility and auxiliary support systems. Now USEC and Fluor are moving toward a more advanced stage of construction with this contract.
"This $1 billion engineering, procurement and construction contract with Fluor exemplifies the significant progress we continue to make on deploying the American Centrifuge Plant," said Philip G. Sewell, USEC senior vice president, American Centrifuge and Russian HEU. "The American Centrifuge project is creating thousands of jobs at sites across the United States. This contract is expected to create approximately 1,000 new jobs, including 800 jobs at the Ohio site."
"We are extremely pleased to continue our work for USEC's critical American Centrifuge Project," said David Seaton, president of Fluor's Energy & Chemicals business group. "This is an important project for both companies as well as for the future of U.S. nuclear energy," he said. "We have had a long successful relationship with USEC and look forward to working with them toward the successful completion of this program."
USEC is deploying the American Centrifuge Plant to provide the dependable, long-term, U.S.-owned nuclear fuel production capability needed to support the country's current nuclear power plants as well as those expected to be built in the future. USEC estimates that the American Centrifuge Plant will create 3,300 direct and indirect jobs in Ohio and more than 3,000 additional direct and indirect jobs at manufacturing sites across the United States as USEC's manufacturers expand their workforce and facilities to support the project.
As America's only commercial uranium enrichment facility using U.S.-owned centrifuge technology, the American Centrifuge Plant will play an important role in America's energy security and national security. Enrichment is the process by which the concentration of the fissionable uranium isotope, U-235, is increased in order to make fuel for nuclear power plants.
Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) provides services on a global basis in the fields of engineering, procurement, construction, operations, maintenance and project management. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Fluor is a FORTUNE 500 company with revenues of $16.7 billion in 2007. For more information, visit www.fluor.com.
USEC Inc., a global energy company, is a leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.
CONTACT: USEC Inc.
Media: Elizabeth Stuckle, 301-564-3399
Investors: Steven Wingfield, 301-564-3354
SOURCE: USEC Inc.