Urenco USA staff outside the Eunice, N.M., enrichment facility. (Photo: Urenco)
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has authorized Urenco USA to enrich uranium up to 10 percent U-235 following changes to plant systems and procedures and an operational readiness review. The company announced the news today, two days after the NRC issued its authorization on September 30 and said that all existing and future cascades at its Eunice, N.M., enrichment facility will be licensed to produce both low-enriched uranium, typically enriched to 5 percent fissile U-235, and LEU+, between 5 and 10 percent U-235.
Centrus employees maneuver a cylinder at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. (Photo: Centrus Energy)
Centrus Energy announced a plan yesterday to add 300 new jobs at Centrus’s uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, “in advance of federal funding decisions.” The company envisions adding capacity for both low-enriched uranium and high-assay low-enriched uranium production at its American Centrifuge Plant, but the “size and scope” of public and private investment is “subject to being selected for funding by the U.S. Department of Energy.”
The now-closed Cottam coal-fired power station, where Holtec and EDF plan to deploy SMR-300s alongside new data centers. (Photo: Holtec)
President Trump will arrive in the United Kingdom this week for a state visit that promises to include the usual pomp and ceremony alongside the signing of a landmark new agreement on U.S.-U.K. nuclear collaboration.
Urenco USA employees move a uranium hexafluoride cylinder to an overpack in preparation for shipping to a fuel fabricator.(Photo: Urenco USA)
The startup of a new cascade of gas centrifuge at Urenco USA’s (UUSA) uranium enrichment facility in Eunice, N.M., came ahead of schedule and on budget, according to the company.
Urenco staff at the facility in Eunice, N.M. (Photo: Urenco)
Urenco USA has initiated production of enriched uranium in its newest gas centrifuge enrichment cascade—the first in a planned expansion of its Eunice, N.M., facility announced in July 2023. When the expansion is complete, early in 2027, the site will have increased its capacity by about 15 percent, adding about 700,000 separative work units (SWU) per year, the company said May 19.
At NRC headquarters are (from left) UUSA’s Gerard Poortman, Wyatt Padgett, Lisa Hardison, and Paul Lorskulsint (seated), with the NRC’s James Downs (seated), Shana Helton, Kimyata Morgan-Butler, John Lubinski, and Johnathan Rowley. (Photo: Urenco USA)
Just one day after Urenco USA (UUSA) was picked by the Department of Energy as one of six contractors eligible to compete for future low-enriched uranium task orders, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on December 11 formally approved the company’s license amendment request to boost uranium enrichment levels at its Eunice, N.M., enrichment facility to 10 percent fissile uranium-235—up from its current limit of 5.5 percent.
Uranium hexafluoride gas containers. (Photo: DOE)
The Department of Energy announced yesterday the six companies that it has selected to supply low-enriched uranium (LEU) from new domestic enrichment sources under future contracts for up to 10 years. The contract recipients are: Centrus Energy’s American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter, Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), Laser Isotope Separation Technologies (LIS Technologies), Orano Federal Services, and Urenco USA’s Louisiana Energy Services.
Representatives of Urenco, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, and the IAEA gathered at Urenco’s Capenhurst site. (Photo: Urenco)
Uranium enricher Urenco welcomed representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency to an August 19 event to mark the creation of an IAEA Centre of Excellence for Safeguards and Non-Proliferation at its Capenhurst, England, site. Representatives of the three nations with ownership stakes in Urenco—the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany—were joined by representatives from the United States, where Urenco also operates an enrichment plant. Urenco expects the new center to be fully operational in 2025.
The Capenhurst site in Cheshire, England. (Photo: Urenco)
The U.K. government this week announced a $245 million (£196 million) award to help Urenco build Europe’s first advanced reactor fuel manufacturing plant, which will be located in northwest England at the company’s Capenhurst site. Urenco, which is part-owned by the U.K. government, will cofund the project.
Representatives of OPG and its partners announced new contracts at the World Nuclear Exhibition in Paris. (Photo: X/@urencoglobal)
At the World Nuclear Exhibition in Paris this week, Ontario Power Generation announced contracts with Canadian, French, and U.S. companies to ensure a fuel supply for the first of four GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy BWRX-300 small modular reactors planned for deployment at OPG’s Darlington nuclear power plant.
A bank of Urenco centrifuges. (Photo: Urenco USA)
Urenco announced July 6 that it will expand enrichment capacity at its U.S. site in Eunice, N.M.—known as UUSA—by adding new centrifuge cascades to increase capacity by about 700 metric tons of separative work units per year, or a 15 percent increase, with the first new cascades coming on line in 2025.