Secondary SWU market - the changing circumstance

The author gives historical background on the uranium enrichment services (SWU) market before evaluating where the market currently stands and where it may be going, particularly in light of the new DOE Facility Requirement (FR) contract. The SWU market came into being as the most economic alternative available to a holder of excess SWU commitments. The FR contract will probably lead to three levels of marketplace activity: material for use within FR contracts from existing DOE inventories; shuffle transactions involving DOE source SWUs to be placed into remaining adjustable, fixed-commitment contracts; and non-DOE origin SWU and worldwide inventory and excess commitments. He concludes that the amount of transactions involving DOE SWU commitments will continue to dwindle, particularly as DOE becomes more and more of a marginal supplier in the overseas market. An appendix summarizes DOE fixed-commitment contract assignments