LEXINTON, KY. — Babcock & Wilcox Conversion Services announces that the DUF6 [depleted uranium hexafluoride] Project has safely shipped more than two million gallons of hydrofluoric acid (HF) since it began conversion operations. More than one million gallons have been shipped from each of the two plants located in Piketon, OH and Paducah, KY.

The two plants reached the first million gallon milestone in Sept., 2012.

Sales of HF so far have returned revenues of more than $1 million in economic benefit to the Department of Energy project and American taxpayers. BWCS delivers the HF for industrial use to Solvay Fluorides, LLC, under Solvay’s contract with BWCS.

“We are delighted that we’re at a stage where the numbers are starting to add up and where there is a real return on investment to the American taxpayer,” said George E. Dials, BWCS president and project manager.

“Ultimately, we will be loading several million gallons of HF a year for shipment and generating millions in long-term revenues and hundreds of millions in savings by avoiding disposal of the HF.,” said Jack Zimmerman, the DOE project manager at the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. “It allows us to recycle an important industrial product as we clean up the nation’s legacy of uranium enrichment.”

The plants were designed to operate for 18 to 25 years to convert the extensive inventory.

The HF is a co-product of the conversion of DUF6 to a more stable form for ultimate disposal. The two plants were constructed by the Department of Energy specifically to convert the nation’s inventory of DUF6, a residual product of the nation’s uranium enrichment programs.