The $2 billion uranium enrichment plant planned by Areva will go to Idaho rather than the Tri-Cities.

Areva announced Tuesday that it had picked a site close to the Idaho National Laboratory from among its five finalist sites, which included space next to its Richland fuel fabrication plant on Horn Rapids Road. That plant has been using enriched uranium to make fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors for 38 years.

"While we had several attractive sites to choose from, we opted for Idaho Falls, which has strong ties to nuclear energy, and which welcomed Areva and its proposed enrichment facility to become a new member of its community," said Michael McMurphy, president of Areva, in a statement. The Idaho National Laboratory is the nation's lead national lab for nuclear energy.

McMurphy sent a letter to Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire saying that "specific operational and economic considerations resulted in a lower overall score" for the Richland site than the Idaho site. The Idaho Legislature approved measures providing economic incentives to Areva, although local officials said Washington's tax structure already equaled tax breaks offered by Idaho.

The Washington site had been added to the short list of finalists after cooperation and encouragement from Gregoire, her staff, colleagues and constituents, Murphy's letter said.

"Indeed the strengths of Washington include the tremendous enthusiasm demonstrated by the local community and the political leadership's support at federal, state and local levels," the letter said. "That was reflected in the high ranking that the Washington site received in the study."

"It's a huge disappointment to me," Gregoire said in a telephone call to the Herald. "I know people are frustrated."

Others criticized the Democratic governor or state leadership in general for not providing more public support for the project.

"While other states were enthusiastically lobbying for this facility, Christine Gregoire only offered late-in-the-game, conditional support for the new plant," said Dino Rossi, a Republican candidate for governor, in a statement.

Idaho's state leadership worked hard to attract the Areva plant, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said in a statement.

"Idaho welcomed them with open arms, while Olympia's response was luke-warm at best," he said.

Now Hastings is concerned about retaining the 600 jobs at the Areva fuel fabrication plant in Richland, should Areva decide it is more efficient to combine uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication work at one facility.

"We can't afford to lose these jobs, and I certainly hope the governor and Legislature put far greater effort into holding onto what we have than they put toward attracting new jobs and investment into our state," Hastings said.

People should not "play politics with something as important as this is to the Tri-Cities," Gregoire said in response to the criticism.

In a phone call to the governor, McMurphy talked about the potential expansion of Areva's operations in Richland and also Redmond, Gregoire said. Washington has been a leader in renewable energy, which offers possible expansion possibilities for Areva, McMurphy said, according to the governor.

His letter to the governor ended with a handwritten note thanking the governor for her kind words about Areva's corporate citizenship.

"We look forward to continuing the relationship, not only in 'nuclear,' but in transmission software as well," the note said.

The state several times asked Areva if there was anything more it could do to help as the company considered sites for the new plant, and each time Areva said there was not, Gregoire said.

However, all parties involved in promoting Richland for the site's new plant now need take a look at whether anything could have been done differently, she said.

The Tri-City Development Council, which had been promoting Richland as a site for the plant since last summer, said the project had been strongly supported by the Tri-City community, Hastings and Washington's two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.

"Gov. Gregoire recently expressed her public support for the project," said the TRIDEC statement. "However, the state of Idaho went to extraordinary measures to demonstrate strong statewide support for this project, including the passage of two separate pieces of legislation providing economic incentives to the company."

At one point, Areva officials told TRIDEC that Idaho had them on speed dial, according to TRIDEC.

Not winning the project is a huge disappointment to TRIDEC and the rest of a local team that worked for more than 10 months on the project, TRIDEC President Carl Adrian said in a statement. The team included the Port of Benton, Richland, Energy Northwest, Battelle, regional labor unions and community leaders.

The Tri-Cities presented a strong business case for locating the new plant near Areva's existing plant and the site met all of the plant's physical requirements, Adrian said.

"As is often the case with these types of decisions, there are a variety of subjective criteria such as quality of life or political support that were also considered as part of the final decision," Adrian said.

The new enrichment plant planned to be built 18 miles west of Idaho Falls will use a gas centrifuge to enrich uranium to be fabricated into fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. It is expected to employ 700 construction workers and lead to up to 450 family-wage jobs.

In addition to sites in Idaho and Washington, other finalist sites were in Ohio, New Mexico and Texas.