HOPE THIS IPO DOESN’T BOMB

If you’re looking for a really hot initial public offering, here’s one that could leave you with a warm feeling all over. It’s expected to be a $2 billion deal, but that’s not even the hottest part; the product is. The government is selling off its uranium enrichment operation, officially the U.S. Enrichment Corp., which has 75% of the domestic and 40% of the foreign markets.

For your money you get two potential Superfund sites – enrichment facilities near Paducah, Ky., and Newport, Ohio, with almost 5,000 workers – and enough low-grade uranium to pull prices down like the lead shoes on a diver. In fact, it has 30 million pounds more than it thought it had.

And, ay, there’s the rub in the equation. It’s enough radioactivity to make the Russians mad. We have a deal to buy up their weapons-grade (93% uranium 235) metal through the enrichment corporation before they make it into bombs. The fears are that Moscow will back out if the market, you should pardon the expression, goes up in smoke.

Not to fear, say Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Energy Secretary Federico Pena, the Clinton administration won’t let anything bad happen.