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Officials say Erwin's NFS has not been sold

Published June 18th, 2008 | 0 Comments

ERWIN � A rumor Nuclear Fuel Services has been sold is circulating, but the company�s president and chief executive officer said that is not the case.

The rumor first surfaced on Monday, and Erwin resident Kathy Thornberry cited it Tuesday during a talk by Unicoi County Schools Director Denise Brown on the proposed middle school.

NFS said in August that it was �reviewing strategic alternatives that could lead to a possible sale of the company.� At the time, spokesman Tony Treadway estimated the process would take six months to a year.

�It hasn�t been sold right now,� President and CEO Dwight Ferguson said Tuesday. �We�re still in the process, but there isn�t anything (to report). And whether there will be, it�s still hard to tell.�

NFS makes fuel for the Navy and converts highlyenriched uranium to a lowenriched form of the chemical. The company also has worked on a number of off-site initiatives, such as the mixedoxide program at Savannah River. It also is working on other projects, including an advanced fuel development laboratory that would take research on new fuels into the pilot development phase.

Asked whether a preliminary agreement had been reached on the sale of NFS with the details still being ironed out, Ferguson said he could not respond to that. He said NFS is still in the process of selling.

�We obviously have been working on it for quite a number of months, almost a year,� he said. �It�s moving, but it�s not there yet.�

He said there is no signed sales agreement, the first step in the process. That is followed by a transfer of NFS� license with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and ensuring the deal has support from naval reactors.

Monday�s rumor was that the naval fuel component of NFS had been sold to Babcock & Wilcox and the conversion of highly-enriched uranium had been sold to Westinghouse.

�I can�t comment on who or what,� Ferguson said. �There�s always a rumor going around.
�We�ve made no secret we�re trying to sell it. We�re well into the process, but we don�t have a signed agreement. There�s still a number of hoops to go through before we could get there. Even if we get a signed agreement, it still could go off track.�

Treadway had a similar message Tuesday, saying he had not been told the company was sold. Once NFS has reached an agreement with another company, he said he would be told about it.

�As far as I know, there�s no official word on anything,� he said. �Anything short of official is speculation, and I can�t do that.�

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