US firm still dedicated to deconversion
07 April 2011
Recent events in Japan have not changed International Isotopes' plans to build the USA's first commercial facility to deconvert depleted uranium. Reporting end of year results, president and CEO Steve Laflin took pains to emphasize the company's intentions. "We firmly believe that recent events do not affect the need for our proprietary solution to safely address depleted uranium and to produce useful products from that material." The planned New Mexico plant would convert uranium hexafluoride into uranium tetrafluoride which the company would then use as a feedstock for its own patented fluorine extraction process and the manufacture of high-purity fluoride products. The company's $5.2 million R&D costs for 2010 were "almost entirely" down to the planning, design and licensing of the planned facility. It has already received DoE approval for the first part of its application for a federal loan guarantee to help build the facility and even has a provisional contract in place to provide deconversion services for the Urenco USA centrifuge enrichment plant.