Nuclear Power Related Media Thread, page-4432

10. The DoE desperately needs laser enrichment commercialized, now. They will award contracts to multiple uranium enrichment providers within a few months. The DoE avoids mentioning laser enrichment since USEC failed to develop it in 2010. But, they did promote it when it was invented at Los Alamos Labs, back in 1976. They still need laser enrichment to recycle acres of tanks of depleted UF6, which is a problem they own. Anti-nuclear activists and cheap Russian imports kept laser enrichment on the shelf for 48 years. There could be political ramifications of awarding a large contract to the foreign-owned start-up (GLE) that persevered and finally commercialized it, but they have little choice, now.