The United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) ended its first quarter $50.8 million in the red, according to the company’s most recent financials – the twelfth unprofitable quarter since 2011. USEC’s first quarter results, released last month, reveal that the company is facing an uncertain future, having lost all its enrichment capacity and most of its traditional sources of revenue.  

Unable to pay off its $530 million debt to bondholders, USEC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 5 of this year. This request is still awaiting approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The company has stated that its ability to continue operating depends on the court’s decision and whether it can successfully implement the debt restructuring plan proposed in the filing.

Despite these developments, USEC continues to receive taxpayer support for its troubled American Centrifuge Project (ACP) with $33.7 million allocated to keep the project afloat through September 30 of this year with an option for two six-month extensions, if needed. That adds to the $280 million in support the ACP has already received from DOE since June, 2012. To top things off, as part of a new agreement signed May 1, USEC is no longer responsible for the ACP’s management, having relinquished that authority to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which will retain the company as a subcontractor.  

The ACP was initially projected to cost $1.7 billion and was expected to become operational in 2005.  Most recently, its expected cost was revised to $6.5 billion with commercial operation slated for 2017. Although not approved, USEC’s 2008 application for a $2 billion loan guarantee to fund the project continues to remain active with DOE due to agency backpedaling. The company has also failed to attract any significant funding from private investors, thanks in no small part to its poor credit ratings and constantly declining stock prices.

The project is already eight years behind schedule, has cost hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars, and, in USEC’s own words, is unlikely to be commercially successful even if completed.

Taxpayers should not be forced to continue subsidizing failure. Congress should stop supporting USEC and the ACP.