Better Uranium Enrichment

Sounds like a news excerpt but I was researching alternative energy sources, which nuclear power is part of, and came across this issue brief from http://www.uic.com.au/nip33.htm

Timing was spot on as this proof-of-concept is to be complete by the end of 2008...

The only remaining laser process on the world stage is SILEX, an Australian development which is molecular and utilises UF6. In 1996 USEC secured the rights to evaluate and develop SILEX for uranium but relinquished these in 2003. (SILEX is also useable for silicon and other stable isotopes.)
In 2006 GE Energy entered a partnership to develop the SILEX process. It provided for GE (now GE-Hitachi) to construct in the USA an engineering-scale test loop (by end of 2008) then a pilot plant or lead cascade, which could be operating by 2010-12, and expanded to a full commercial plant. Apart from US$ 20 million upfront and subsequent payments, the license agreement will yield 7-12% royalties, the precise amount depending on how low the cost of deploying the commercial technology. GE referred to SILEX, which it has re-badged as Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), as "game-changing technology" with a "very high likelihood" of success. In August 2007 Silex confirmed that GE-Hitachi planned "to complete the test loop program at the end of 2008, which if successful, would open the way for the first commercial enrichment plant to be constructed."
In October 2007 the two largest US nuclear utilities, Exelon and Entergy, signed letters of intent to contract for uranium enrichment services from GEH. The utilities may also provide GEH with facility licensing and public acceptance support if needed for development of a commercial-scale GLE plant, for which the NRC expects an application in FY08. GEH has begun preparing a GLE test loop at Global Nuclear Fuel's Wilmington, North Carolina fuel fabrication facility - GNF is a partnership of GE, Toshiba, and Hitachi. Before moving ahead with full-scale production plans, GEH will first evaluate results of the testing, select a location for the proposed commercial plant and obtain a license to build and operate it. Site selection and commercial licensing are now under way with a view to start-up date of 2012, with capacity of 3.5 to 6 million separative work units (SWU).