Nuclear Facility Recycles Uranium

October 18, 2004

Atlanta - A nuclear processing facility in Tennessee has started recycling former weapons-grade uranium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina so that the material can be used by commercial reactors to generate electricity.

The Departement of Energy which operates SRS, said the four-year project will help the agency rid itself of surplus bomb-grade material.

It will also save taxpayers $500 million that would have been spent to store the material and provide TVA with fuel equal to $800,000 rail cars of coal.