"Fortunately, the nuclear industry has people with a better response time than USEC has shown in recent years. One is International Isotopes which had been a modest producer of medical isotopes in Idaho. It purchased some core technology for safely and profitably disposing of UF6 from a former USEC partner that had fallen on hard times. The technology has been further developed, and now International Isotopes will be building a pilot plant for UF6 reprocessing, and soon after a full scale plant.

Steve Laflin, chief executive of International Isotopes, says new entrants to the US enrichment market created the opportunity for his company. Its process converts uranium fluoride into depleted uranium oxide and a range of pure fluorine compounds are used in the semiconductor industry. There is an international market of more than $630m (£316m, €398m) annually for these speciality gases, and the demand is growing rapidly.

Mr Laflin says: "People tend to look at uranium and nuclear waste and think it is part of the fuel cycle, but we are helping to deal with the issue of waste disposal. We have the most environmentally friendly method for disposing of UF6." Most UF6 in the US is being stored in slowly rusting metal containers in the open air, not a preferred solution for what becomes a corrosive gas if exposed to the atmosphere.

International Isotopes will be raising something like $50m to build the new facilities; it is not determined whether that will come from a private placement or public issuance. But given the patent lock it has, and the prospective 50 per cent gross margins, that shouldn't be impossible. The timing of plant construction is more dependent on the length of the public review process, but since the company is reducing the amount of waste, and has a licence to handle nuclear materials, its prospects are good." (7/20/08)
    -   FT.com

"International Isotopes Inc. will be constructing a facility to process depleted uranium hexafluoride tails from uranium enrichment operations. Company officials said they're taking this step based on the recent announcements of several large companies’ plans to build nuclear fuel enrichment plants in the United States, including Areva, according to KIFI TV." (6/5/08)
    -   Idaho Business News

"A tiny eastern Idaho company said Wednesday it plans to build a plant to make useful industrial gases out of waste from commercial uranium enrichment facilities like the one France's Areva NC Inc. plans to build near Idaho Falls.

The plant proposed by International Isotopes Inc. of Idaho Falls won't necessarily be in Idaho. To equip it, the company plans to buy used equipment from a defunct Oklahoma site that's been shuttered since the early 1990s.

International Isotopes said its proposed plant, to employ 50, would turn depleted uranium hexafluoride, or UF6, into more-easily disposable solid waste. In addition, it would extract high-value germanium fluoride gas needed to etch silicon for microelectronics.

The U.S. Department of Energy is building two plants, at Paducah, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio, to handle roughly 450,000 tons of existing waste from uranium enrichment facilities at those locations." (6/4/08)
    -   Seattle Times

"There is a company with a long history, based in Idaho Falls (the heart of nuclear fuel research in the U.S.), that controls the intellectual property around a technology called the Fluorine Extraction Process. This company, International Isotopes, has successfully tested the technology at its plant, which I have visited. It has begun to commercialize the technology.

International Isotopes takes depleted uranium and converts it into a high value fluorine-based industrial gas. The remaining depleted uranium dioxide can be disposed of or even reused in MOX nuclear reactors, completely eliminating the environmental problem of depleted uranium.

The economics are very compelling because the fluorine industrial gasses are valuable. The only other way that you can produce industrial fluorine gasses is by mining fluorspar and converting it to hydrochloric acid. China has just imposed a tax and quota system on fluorspar, causing a fluorspar shortage; fluorspar prices are starting to rise.

The primary use of fluorine-based gasses is to create certain types of coolants, which are used in air conditioners and refrigerators. And everyone in China wants air conditioning and refrigeration. There is a surging demand for coolants, and therefore a surging demand for fluorine gasses. All of this setting up for a very interesting situation for International Isotopes, where they can take depleted uranium, which nobody wants, and take it and convert it into a high value industrial gas. The fluorine extraction process is the key to winning broad public acceptance for large-scale investment in the nuclear fuel cycle." (1/29/08)
    -   The Gold Report Interview with James Passin

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