WASHINGTON (AP) -- The company running the nation's two uranium enrichment plants wants the government to replace any contaminated uranium inherited in a 1998 transfer of operations.

The U.S. Enrichment Corp. was given government uranium inventories as part of the deal to privatize the nation's uranium enrichment operations. The two plants are in Piketon, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky.

The company notified the Energy Department in December that testing on ``limited samples'' of that uranium found some contamination with radioactive technetium.

How much of the uranium may be tainted is still to be determined, but the amount could be more than 24 million pounds, a third of the 74 million pounds of raw uranium the government turned over in 1998.

``USEC expects DOE to replace any non-conforming material once the testing program is concluded,'' the company said in a written statement.

The government intends to work with USEC to determine how much of its inherited uranium inventory is contaminated, the Energy Department said Wednesday.

DOE spokeswoman Lisa Cutler said she could not address questions of whether the government would be required to reimburse USEC for tainted uranium.

``We just don't know the scope of it at this point,'' she said.

The uranium enrichment plants were created to produce uranium for nuclear bombs and now produce fuel for nuclear power plants.

USEC intends to cease operations in Ohio in June, to cut costs.