Urenco Group
The Urenco Group is a British company law with headquarters in Marlow, UK. The group is divided into two divisions:
In the United States since 2010, a plant in Eunice, New Mexico in operation.
History
Urenco was founded in 1970 with the ' Treaty of Almelo ' between Britain, Germany and the Netherlands. Thus, the research of the three countries should be united on the centrifuge technique and used commercially. Britain and the Netherlands each hold one-third of the shares. The German nuclear power plant operators RWE and E.ON each have one-sixth of the shares.
Urenco supplied in 2006 the world market for enriched uranium with a share of 23 percent. With a turnover of about EUR 900 million, a net profit of 209 million euros was recorded.
Urenco began with three pilot plants at the three locations in Europe, before the establishment of the first two commercial plants at Capenhurst (E21 ) and Almelo (SP3 ) began. The first customer deliveries were recorded in 1976, which reached full capacity the plant in 1980 with a total Urantrennarbeit of 460 tons per year. The subsequent increase in production could be well adapted to the actual supply thanks to the modular design of the centrifuge technique as demand forecasts of the 1970s turned out to be completely over the top in the 1980s and 1990s.
The capacity of the Urenco plant in 2008 was more than 10,000 tons of separative work per year and will be further expanded.
With the commissioning of the plant in Eunice, NM, in June 2010, a new plant for uranium enrichment in the United States was built for over 50 years for the first time. Previously, only one plant in Paducah, Kentucky was in operation, which is based on technology of the first generation and dates from 1954.
In an incident in the Gronau uranium enrichment plant operated by Urenco on January 21, 2010, a worker was contaminated. It was exposed to elevated ionizing radiation. The dose caused by the accident was 1.1 mSv.
Criticism
Uranium from Namibia
In May 1985, the Namibia Council of the United Nations ( UNCN ) against Urenco decided to sue for breach of a UNCN regulation. Under that regulation, the degradation of natural resources in Namibia was illegal under the occupying power South Africa, Urenco has been criticized to have imported uranium ore from the Rössing Mine. The case came to trial in July 1986, where the Dutch government the position Urenco joined that they did not know where the uranium was recovered.
Uranium export to Russia
2007 the company got into the public criticism, as a contribution of the ZDF program Frontal21 reported that the company spend depleted UF6 to Russia for reprocessing, without worrying about the prevailing poor safety conditions and the associated health risks for the Russian workers. Since 1996, most recently in August 2008 as " recyclables " declared waste of uranium enrichment of Gronau on the rail in the Siberian Sewersk was delivered to the local contractors Tenex and stored there under the open sky in steel drums. Only 10 to 15 percent according to the company came in the form of fuel back to Germany, the rest remained in Russia, such as the television documentary revealed nuclear waste nightmare. In connection with the disaster in Japan, the company made headlines because Urenco has several customers in Japan and has exported enriched uranium for fuel rods production to Japan.
Awards
The Urenco Germany GmbH has received the certificate Ethics in Business in 2005. Environmental organizations such as the Bund, Euro Solar or the Association of Citizens' Initiatives for Environmental Protection criticized the granting of the certificate of environmental aspects are concerned.
Sponsoring
The Urenco Germany also sponsors cultural program within the town of Gronau and main sponsor of the soccer teams forward Epe 1923 eV (district league) and Gronau Fortuna 09 /54 eV