Urenco to build new US enrichment plant capacity

Urenco USA's facility in Eunice, New Mexico, is currently the only commercial uranium enrichment capacity in the USA. Urenco's decision to increase capacity by 2.1 million SWU marks its commitment to strengthening the US nuclear fuel supply chain as the country expands the use of nuclear power, the company said. (SWU stands for Separative Work Unit - the standard measure of the effort required to separate U235 and U238 - see WNN's guide to uranium and the nuclear fuel cycle and World Nuclear Association's Information Library for more information about uranium enrichment.)

The new plant will use Urenco's proven gas-centrifuge enrichment technology, installed in up to 24 cascades of centrifuges. The first cascades are expected to start producing low-enriched uranium (LEU) in 2032, with additional cascades installed and coming online through to 2036.

LEU serves as the foundational fuel for the existing operating fleet of commercial light water reactors, which generate nearly 20% of US electricity, but will also serve as essential feedstock to produce high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) in the future, the company said. HALEU will be used in some advanced reactor designs planned for deployment in the 2030s.

Urenco invested about USD5 billion in the National Enrichment Facility - the first ever project to be issued a combined construction and operating licence by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and - at the time construction began in 2006 - the first new nuclear project in the USA in almost 30 years, according to information from the company. It began producing enriched uranium in June 2010.

The site now has some 64 cascades of centrifuges online and produces about 4.3 million SWU per year, which is sufficient capacity to meet nearly one-third of the annual US demand for enrichment services. An ongoing expansion project to add 700,000 SWU of capacity is due to be completed in 2027, and the company also plans to refurbish existing capacity at the site.

"For more than fifteen years, Urenco USA has provided its US utility customers with a reliable domestic supply of enriched uranium to power their nuclear reactors," said Boris Schucht, CEO of Urenco Global. "This expansion reinforces our commitment to a resilient US nuclear fuel supply chain focused on meeting the long-term needs of our customers as well as supporting US energy security through continued investment by Urenco."

Urenco USA currently employs more than 500 staff and long-term contractors at the New Mexico facility. A report published late last year by Oxford Economics found that the operations of Urenco USA contributed more than USD360 million to the US economy in 2024-2025.

The new project will support between 300-600 US jobs during the peak construction period and 70 jobs in long-term operations at the site, and Managing Director of Urenco USA John Kirkpatrick said the company's new investment will bring jobs and economic benefits to local communities and the state of New Mexico. "This is the most transformative expansion decision for Urenco in the past decade, and our New Mexico employees are ready to fuel the continued growth of the US power industry by bringing this additional capacity online. We are already preparing for the expansion and are excited to continue the work done onsite in recent years to add new capacity to our existing plant," he said.

The US capacity programme is part of a larger effort by UK-headquartered Urenco Global to install 4.6 million of new SWU enrichment capacity at sites in the United States, the Netherlands, and Germany over the next decade. It is also building a commercial HALEU facility - the first in Europe - at Capenhurst in the UK, with joint funding from the UK Government.

The US government has been taking steps to strengthen its domestic nuclear supply chain, and earlier this year awarded task orders totalling USD2.7 billion to three companies - General Matter, American Centrifuge Operating, and Orano Federal Services - to provide enrichment services for LEU and HALEU to transition the USA away from foreign sources of uranium and diversify its domestic fuel supply, plus a separate award of USD28 million going to Global Laser Enrichment to continue advancing next-generation uranium enrichment technology. Orano Federal Services's application for a construction and operating licence for its Project IKE centrifuge enrichment plant, to be built in Tennessee, is currently undergoing review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.