Incentive package: A 15-year incentive package from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority would provide tax incentives based on the company’s investment of $1.76 billion in the state, as well as its meeting of annual targets for the creation and maintenance of 240 full-time jobs for Kentucky residents with an average hourly wage of $62, including benefits. Additional tax incentives would come through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act, which allows approved companies to recoup Kentucky sales and use taxes on construction costs, building fixtures, equipment used in research and development, and electronic processing, according to the news release.
GLE has been working to commercialize a laser-based uranium enrichment process known as SILEX—separation of isotopes by laser excitation—which was developed by Australian company Silex Systems—at its test loop pilot facility in Wilmington, N.C. GLE is now carrying out a technology maturation program with full-scale preliminary detailed design for the PLEF, which would re-enrich a portion of the Department of Energy’s inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride tails in Paducah. That uranium is left from the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which ceased operations in 2013.
According to GLE, the re-enrichment of the depleted uranium at Paducah would support cleanup efforts at DOE legacy sites and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign uranium fuel sources. GLE’s plans are on track to begin re-enriching the Paducah inventory at PLEF by 2030, the company said.
Funding progress: If granted final approval, the new incentive package would add to the other funding progress that GLE has reported for its uranium enrichment activities. The company previously received about $600 million in privately funded engineering, design, manufacturing, and licensing investments from sources in North Carolina and Kentucky. It also received a grant with an undisclosed value from the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority and was selected by the DOE for an award of as much as $28.5 million to continue advancing next-generation laser-based uranium enrichment technology for the nuclear fuel cycle.
GLE CEO Stephen M. Long said of the preliminary approval of the incentive package that his company “greatly appreciates McCracken County and the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s enthusiasm and support for nuclear energy and the creation of new U.S. domestic nuclear fuel sources. The incentive package reflects a shared vision for economic development, technological leadership, and the establishment of a resilient domestic nuclear fuel supply chain.” Referencing Paducah’s past importance in the domestic nuclear fuel cycle, he continued, “GLE is proud to reassert Kentucky’s leadership with the world’s most advanced uranium enrichment technology.”
To Comment on the EIS: Comments on the draft EIS can be submitted through May 11 to the NRC via email, or by visiting the Federal Register website or the Federal Rulemaking website (and including Docket ID NRC-2025-1007 in your comment).
Additional information about the NRC’s environmental review can be obtained by contacting NRC environmental project managers Amy Minor or Diana Diaz-Toro via email.
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