DOE Accused of Illegally Transferring Uranium at Portsmouth
By: Ivy Kha
Summary of Article
Article can be found on http://www.4-traders.com/CENTRUS-ENERGY-CORP-21225363/news/Centrus-Energy--DOE-accused-of-illegally-transferring-uranium-20478298/ U.S. Senators John Barrasso and Edward Markey brought to attention that the U.S. Department of Energy has "transferred more than twice the allowable amount of excess uranium to prop up what was then USEC, Inc. -- now known as Centrus Energy Corporation." The DOE has continually "violated its own policies and the federal law when managing the public's excess stockpile of uranium." Instead of returning enriched uranium to the public fairly, the DOE has been transferring it to a failing uranium enrichment company, USEC, now known as Centrus Energy Corp. According to the Government Accountability Office(GAO), taxpayers have lost "as much as $195 million."
Proposed Solution: Congress wants to pass a bipartisian bill which "will require that the Department dispose of this stockpile in a transparent manner, answer to the public, and maximize the value of this uranium for American taxpayers."
Proposed Solution: Congress wants to pass a bipartisian bill which "will require that the Department dispose of this stockpile in a transparent manner, answer to the public, and maximize the value of this uranium for American taxpayers."
Government Accountability Office Findings
Hidden Awareness
Over the summer, Portsmouth Daily Times published an article regarding the DOE being accused of illegally transferring Uranium; however, the article is now nowhere to be found throughout their news site. The link to what used to be the published article was found at the following link http://portsmouth-dailytimes.com/news/news/153847510/DOE-accused-of-illegally-transferring-uranium The link to this article had been shared on a popular social media site such as Facebook, which plays a large role in bringing awareness to today's society. The post was originally shared by a group named Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
The link to this article had been shared on a popular social media site such as Facebook, which plays a large role in bringing awareness to today's society. The post was originally shared by a group named Nuclear Information and Resource Service. Due to the comment posted shown to the left, further investigation took place and an article titled was found through the link http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/dan-poneman-centrus-116089 This article verifies that Dan Poneman did indeed leave the DOE and became the CEO of the company, Centrus, originally known as the United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC) In this article, he states that " the company didn’t approach him about the job until after he had left the department" but according to Sen. John Barrasso, the "DOE has long had an improper relationship with USEC." He also mentions that although the company is seen as a competitor, there has been "past DOE uranium deals helped Centrus' bottom line."