Glossary
Areva
The French energy and connectors Group.
Assay
This describes the relative proportion of the various isotopes of uranium and in particular is used to specify the amount of 235 (U235) isotope with respect to the total amount of uranium.
Capital Investment
Purchases of property, plant and equipment.
Cascade
The arrangement of centrifuges connected in parallel and in series is termed a “cascade”. In a uranium enrichment plant several cascades are operated in parallel to form an “operational unit” producing one U235 assay. Various operational units form one enrichment plant.
CFC
Chlorofluorocarbon, a chemical found in many manufacturing processes and believed to be responsible for depleting the Earth’s diminishing ozone layer.
COVRA
Centrale Organisatie Voor Radioactief Afval – the Dutch company that treats and stores nuclear materials which are either wastes or by-products from the nuclear processes in the Netherlands.
CTG
Central Technology Group. The purpose of the CTG is to focus on the ongoing site alignment work to enable Urenco’s site operations to be similar to each other. The CTG will also support Urenco’s sites in running technical projects and will become UEC’s qualified customer interface with ETC.
Deconversion
This is the process of removing the volatile fluorine component from uranium hexafluoride to make stable uranium oxide. Urenco has chosen to use U3O8 as the long-term retrievable storage form of uranium.
EBITDA
Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (where Earnings is Profit for the year from continuing operations).
Enrichment
The step in the nuclear fuel cycle that increases the concentration of U235 relative to U238 in order to make uranium usable as a fuel for nuclear power reactors.
ETC
Enrichment Technology Company Limited.
Euratom
The European Atomic Energy Community, established in 1957 by members of the European Union.
EUP
Enriched Uranium Product, i.e. UF6 enriched to typically, between 3% and 5% U235 content.
Feed
Natural or reprocessed uranium, previously converted to UF6.
FSSC
Finance Share Services Centre
GDP
Gas Diffusion Plant.
Gas centrifuge
The specific equipment used by Urenco during the uranium enrichment process, this process uses a rapidly spinning cylinder to separate the fissionable U235 isotope from the non-fissionable U238 isotope.
Gaseous diffusion
A uranium enrichment process which uses porous barriers to separate the U235 and U238 isotopes.
IAEA
International Atomic Energy Agency.
IFRS
International Financial Reporting Standards.
Interest
Finance costs less Finance income.
Joint Committee
The committee of representatives of the Governments of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany that oversees Urenco’s compliance with the Treaty of Almelo.
LES
Louisiana Energy Services Limited Partnership is the US partnership that is the investment vehicle for the NEF.
NEF
National Enrichment Facility – Urenco’s enrichment plant under construction in New Mexico, USA.
Net Financial Debt
Loans and Borrowings (current and non-current) less Cash and Cash Equivalents.
Net Working Capital
Inventories, Trade and other receivables, and Cash and Cash Equivalents, less the current portion of Trade and other payables.
Nuclear Fuel Supply Chain
The multiple steps that convert uranium as it is extracted from the earth to nuclear fuel for use in power plants. Uranium enrichment is one step in the nuclear fuel supply chain.
NRC
Nuclear Regulatory Commission – the United States Nuclear regulator.
Order book
Contracted and agreed business.
Product Assay
The U235 concentration of the product material. Typical light water reactors require between 3 and 5% U235 to operate efficiently.
SWU
Separative Work Unit. The standard measure of the effort required to increase the concentration of the fissionable U235 isotope.
Tails (Depleted UF6)
Uranium hexafluoride that contains a much lower concentration than the natural concentration (0.711%) of the U235 isotope.
Tails Assay
The U235 concentration of the by-product material (depleted UF6). Material is extracted naturally from mines at 0.711% U235 and Urenco’s by-product is typically below 0.3% U235, still containing a considerable amount of this fissionable U235 isotope.
TC12
ETC’s current series production centrifuge.
TC21
ETC’s newly developed series production centrifuge.
Treaty of Almelo
In the early 1970s the German, Dutch and British Governments signed the Treaty of Almelo, an agreement under which the three partners would jointly develop the centrifuge process of uranium enrichment.
Treaty of Cardiff
In July 2005 the German, Dutch, British and French Governments signed the Treaty of Cardiff, an agreement between the four Governments to supervise the collaboration between Urenco and Areva in their Joint Venture, ETC.
tSW
Tonnes of Separative Work.
tSW/a
Tonnes of Separative Work per annum
Turnover
Revenue from sale of goods and services.
UEC
Urenco Enrichment Company Limited.
Uranium
A fairly abundant metallic element. Approximately 993 of every 1,000 uranium atoms are U238. The remaining seven atoms are U235 (0.711%), which is used in today’s nuclear power stations to generate energy by fission.
Uranium Hexafluoride (UF6)
All enrichment processes today work with gaseous material, therefore uranium is converted to UF6.
USEC
United States Enrichment Corporation Inc, based in the Maryland, USA
U235
The fissionable isotope found in natural uranium.
U238
The non-fissionable isotope found in natural uranium.
U3O8
Uranium oxide, the most stable form of uranium.