Urenco USA marks first commercial LEU+ production

The company received authorisation from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to enrich uranium up to 10% U-235 at its National Enrichment Facility in New Mexico in September 2025. All the plant's gas centrifuge cascades are licensed to produce LEU+.

"A tremendous amount of work has gone into preparing our plant and our staff to reach this achievement," Urenco USA Managing Director Jody Blackshear said. "Through the coordinated efforts of teams from across our site and company, we can now supply an innovative fuel option for our customers and support the next generation of nuclear fuel technologies."

Natural uranium contains two uranium isotopes - uranium-235 (U-235) and uranium-238. Of these, only U-235 is fissile, meaning it can undergo fission, the process used in a nuclear reactor to produce energy. U-235 makes up less than 1% of natural uranium, so enrichment plants like Urenco USA's increase the percentage of U-235 by making use of the very slight difference in mass between the fissile and non-fissile isotopes to separate them. This is usually done in gas centrifuges. 

Most commercial nuclear reactors currently in operation use fuel fabricated with low-enriched uranium - or LEU - which has been enriched to contain 3-5% U-235. LEU+ contains 5-10% of the fissile uranium-235 isotope.

Fuels made using LEU+ can offer operating advantages for existing light water reactors, allowing them to operate for longer cycles which reduces the frequency of refuelling outages, as well as operations and maintenance costs. Some advanced reactor technologies currently being developed will also use LEU+ fuel; others will use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel, which contains 10-20% U-235. LEU+ can provide a feedstock for producing HALEU.

Urenco USA is in the process of installing 700,000 separative work units (SWU) of new centrifuge enrichment capacity at its New Mexico facility between as part of its goal to expand its US enrichment production capacity to more than 7 million SWU over the next decade. The company has announced plans to build a new 2.1 million SWU enrichment plant at the site, with construction to start in 2029 and the first centrifuge cascades expected to begin production in 2032 with additional cascades installed through to 2036. This new capacity will also be available to produce LEU+.