By Angela Hatton
Washington, D. C. – Kentucky's US Senators, along with Congressman Ed Whitfield, have introduced bills to initiate a pilot program to re-enrich depleted uranium. The program would use uranium tails, which are waste material that contain a usable amount of the element. Tails are stored on site at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and at a Portsmouth, Ohio facility. Legislators say the pilot program could reduce the amount of waste at the sites by 30,000 tons. It would also extend the jobs of around 1,200 workers in Paducah. The plant is scheduled to shut down in 2012. Supporters claim the project would also help pay for continued cleanup at the nuclear fuel sites. The bill is before both House and Senate committees.