CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Off of Highway 44 in Duval County between Freer and San Diego, an old uranium facility has been given new life.
The uranium plant, previously owned by Uranium Resources, is actually in Rosita and now owned by Encore Energy. The facility had not produced any uranium since 2008. The new owners put in just under $2 million to get the facility back up and running.
”Sat idle and decaying quite frankly since 2008. So, we came in and renovated it,” Executive Chairman for Encore Energy William Sheriff said.
The plant just produced its first batch of yellowcake, formed from a chemical process and eventually turned into fuel for nuclear reactors. That entire process take about 2 years from the time it’s extracted from non-potable water pulled up through injection wells.
”Timing was perfect before uranium was coming back. We knew but not too many people did so the price was right," Sheriff said.
Hundreds of folks showed up to the plant site to celebrate it's grand re-opening including former Governor and U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.
"I’m pretty excited about the potential here and the possibility of continued growth and jobs being created here and a new industry. A new energy resource,” Perry said.
There are only 11 facilities like this in the country and four of them are in Texas. Encore Energy owns three of the Texas facilities with one located over in Kingsville.
Local State Representative Ryan Guillen is the chairman of the Texas Nuclear Caucus and is excited about the project.
”We are working to advance nuclear projects across the state," Guillen said.
The US is the largest customer of uranium in the world and largely depends on imports. 50 percent of that moves through Russia. Chairman Sheriff said he and his company plan on cutting that dependency down to 10 percent. He feels his production units can starting making enough yellowcake to get the job done within the next few years.
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