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PIKETON, Ohio (AP) - In a building far from public view in the tree-covered hills of southern Ohio, the company that recycles uranium from Russian warheads for fueling U.S. nuclear power plants is preparing to demonstrate an advance from Cold War technology.
USEC Inc., which last month began interior construction on its American Centrifuge Plant some 65 miles south of Columbus, is nearly ready to show off its process at a demonstration facility.
The company says using centrifugal force to enrich uranium is much more efficient than the 1950s-developed gaseous diffusion method, with the new plant expected to use about 5 percent of the electricity needed for gaseous diffusion. USEC runs a gaseous diffusion plant in Paducah, Ky., the only uranium enrichment plant in the United States.
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