Nuclear Power
US Energy Dept. Awards $2.7B to Expand Enriched Uranium Production Sites
Orano Federal Services gains $900 million to expand US domestic LEU enrichment capacity over the next ten years and accelerate completion of a $5B Oak Ridge, Tenn., facility on a 920-acre largely greenfield site.
The U.S. Energy Dept. has awarded three task orders totaling $2.7 billion to three companies aimed to expand domestic production of enriched uranium. According to the agency, the ten-year task orders would expand U.S. capacity for low-enriched uranium (LEU) and create new supply chains and innovations to manufacture high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for nuclear power generation.
Developing new domestic production capacity “ensures an adequate fuel supply is available to maintain operations of the nation’s 94 commercial reactors builds a strong base to supply future deployments of advanced nuclear reactors,” the agency said.
San Francisco-based General Matter, one of two companies awarded $900 million to create domestic HALEU enrichment capacity, is building a $1.5-billion commercial uranium enrichment facility on a leased 100-acre site at the former federal Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. In a social media statement, the company said the task order “accelerates that plan and will make Paducah, Kentucky the cornerstone of U.S. enrichment once again.”
The other HALEU task order was awarded to American Centrifuge Operating, an arm of Bethesda, Md.-based Centrus Energy, that is working with the department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to develop what the company called “a highly-efficient uranium enrichment gas centrifuge technology.”
Centrus has been performing uranium enrichment operations since 2023 at its American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, where the company said it is “pioneering” HALEU production under contract to the government. In December, Centrus announced the start of domestic centrifuge manufacturing to support commercial LEU enrichment activities in Piketon, with the first new production capacity expected online in 2029.
The department also awarded $900 million to Orano Federal Services to expand U.S. domestic LEU enrichment capacity over the next ten years. The U.S. subsidiary of the French-owned company says the award will accelerate development of a $5-billion Oak Ridge, Tenn., facility.
Located on a 920-acre largely greenfield site, the project's s initial 750,000-sq-ft multi-structure phase is on track for federal license submission early this year, the company said, with LEU production scheduled to begin in 2031. Orano is currently expanding its existing commercial-scale Georges Besse II gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility in France, and will “apply the best practices from that construction and expansion" to the U.S.production site.
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The three companies selected for the task orders were among six firms contracted by the department last year for LEU and HALEU enrichment, allowing them to bid on future work. To ensure accountability, the agency said it will distribute the awards under a strict milestone approach.
Separately, the department also awarded $28 million to Global Laser Enrichment, Wilmington, N.C., to continue advancing next-generation laser-based uranium enrichment technology. The company, which also competed for an LEU enrichment task award, plans to build a facility on a 665-acre site adjacent to the federal Paduch site that will use the technology to re-enrich high-assay depleted uranium tails.
Operations at the new facility could begin as early as 2030.
