Second phase of US enrichment expansion completed

The new cascade is the second to start up as part of an expansion of the National Enrichment Facility, which will see Urenco USA add 700,000 separative work units (SWU) of new capacity at the site between 2025-2027 and increase the plant's capacity by 15%. Urenco USA brought the initial cascade of the expansion online in May.

Urenco USA is currently the only commercial producer of enriched uranium and has sufficient the capacity to meet around a third of the enrichment needs of US commercial nuclear power plants. The expansion supports the USA's goal of reinvigorating its nuclear industrial base and strengthening the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain, the company said.

"With the current expansion campaign, our projects and operations teams are demonstrating their ability to build, install, and start up new cascades on a regular schedule, proving we are capable of growing to meet new demand as it arises," said John Kirkpatrick, Managing Director for Urenco USA. "We know how important this expansion is to our US utility customers, who have relied on us as a long-term domestic supplier of nuclear fuel, and we are confident we can deliver additional capacity on schedule in the years ahead."

Aalo delivery

In a separate announcement, Aalo Atomics said it expects to take delivery of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to fuel its Aalo-X experimental extra modular nuclear reactor from Urenco in late 2025 or early 2026, having signed a contract with the enrichment company in July.

Aalo says it will be the first US advanced reactor company to take delivery of commercially supplied enriched uranium, and the company's CTO Yasir Arafat said the uranium supplied by Urenco is an "exciting catalyst" as the company heads towards first criticality in 2026. "Not only is the uranium available immediately, but it is also completely scalable, providing us with the ability to deploy Aalo Pods for data centres again and again at gigawatt scale, keeping pace with demand," he said.

The company broke ground for the Aalo-X at a site in Idaho in August, planning to complete construction and achieve criticality by 4 July 2026, the goal date set by the Department of Energy for at least three test reactors to reach criticality under the Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program to expedite the testing of advanced reactor designs.

"We have been impressed with Aalo's unique approach of building fully modular nuclear plants, its thoughtfulness in how to execute its vision and its commitment to speed to market," said Urenco's VP Advanced Fuels, Commercial, North America, Alison Poortman. "We look forward to helping the company reach criticality next year and being part of the Aalo mission for many years to come."