Concept art of LIS Technologies’ commercial enrichment facility on Duct Island. (Source: LIS Technologies)
On January 16, Tenn. Gov. Bill Lee, Deputy Gov. Stuart McWhorter, and officials from Laser Isotope Separation Technologies announced the company’s plans to expand in Oak Ridge, Tenn. That expansion will come with a $1.38 billion investment from LIS Technologies for what the company says will be the first commercial laser uranium enrichment plant in the United States.
Site details: The LIS Technologies enrichment plant will be built on the footprint of the historic K-25 Uranium Enrichment site, where the company has acquired the 206-acre Duct Island for $8 million. The redevelopment of the site, renamed LIST Island, is set to create 203 jobs.
The company intends to begin site preparation and nonnuclear construction this year, pending licensing, permitting, and final investment decisions, and is targeting commercial operations before 2030.
Recent finances: This spending plan comes after an influx of funding for LIS Technologies. On January 13, the company announced that it had raised $17 million in an oversubscribed funding round.
On the other hand, it also comes shortly after LIS Technologies was not selected for a major Department of Energy award. In December 2024, it was among six enrichment companies selected for the DOE’s LEU Enrichment Acquisition Program, which was set up with a total cumulative contract ceiling of $3.4 billion.
The companies involved in this program did not immediately receive DOE awards. Instead, the program allowed them to begin a bidding process for future awards. On January 6, the DOE announced that it would award $900 million to Orano to expand domestic LEU enrichment capacity.
While LIS Technologies was not selected for an award in that January 6 announcement , another would-be commercial laser enricher—Global Laser Enrichment—received $28 million to continue developing its technology. The DOE has not definitively stated whether more awards will be distributed to LEU enrichers through the LEU Enrichment Acquisition Program.
Quotable: “Selecting Oak Ridge is both a strategic and symbolic decision for LIS Technologies. This community represents the foundation of America’s enrichment capability and the future of its clean energy and national security mission. Our laser enrichment technology fundamentally changes the economics of enrichment, enabling faster deployment, lower capital intensity and long-term cost advantages. With our [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] licensing process underway, we are moving deliberately toward construction readiness and positioning the U.S. to lead the world in commercial laser enrichment,” said Jay Yu, executive chairman and CEO of LIS Technologies.
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