Nuclear Power
Firms Scale Facilities to Produce More US, European Enriched Uranium Privately
As U.S. nuclear energy continues a resurgence, two private firms leading enriched uranium production domestically have announced plans to expand facilities that will scale up production.
Centrus Energy has finalized a contract with the U.S. Energy Dept. to deploy a commercial-scale, high-assay, low-enriched uranium, called HALEU, at the company’s American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The $1.07-billion fixed-price contract includes the competitively-bid $900 million task order the agency awarded earlier this year, along with options for it to purchase up to $170 million in enriched uranium for DOE missions.
In February, Centrus selected Fluor Corp. to serve as its engineering, procurement and construction contractor for a previously announced multi-billion-dollar phased expansion of Piketon plant enrichment capabilities. The facility is located at the site of DOE’s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant that closed in 2001.
According to a Centrus announcement, the initial buildout will include 12 metric tons of annual HALEU production as well as capacity to meet the company’s existing low-enriched uranium (LEU) backlog of $2.4 billion, with further production expansions subject to customer demand.
Centrus expects the new capacity at Piketon to come online beginning in 2029. Concurrently, Centrus is investing $560 million to transition its Technology and Manufacturing Center in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to produce high-rate manufacturing centrifuges. The Oak Ridge factory is the only uranium enrichment centrifuge manufacturing facility in the U.S.
New Mexico Uranium Site Expansion Starts
Meanwhile the operator of the National Enrichment Facility, the sole U.S. commercial uranium enrichment site, has announced plans for a privately funded multibillion-dollar expansion at its Eunice, N.M., complex that would boost low enriched uranium production by 50%.
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Urenco USA eyes a 2027 construction start for a new process building set to house up to 24 gas centrifuge cascades totaling 2.1 million separative work units of new enrichment capacity. New cascades would start production in 2032, with others to be installed through 2036.
About 15 million separative work units of uranium enrichment capacity were bought by American civilian nuclear reactors in 2024, with only 19% sourced in the US, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
A spokesperson said the firm is weighing supply chain options for the expansion, including EPC contractor selection, and plans to finalize it before 2027. "We are already well into the design process for the new plant and expect to proceed quickly once we have selected supply chain partners," the spokesperson said.
In a separate upgrade project also to begin next year, Urenco USA plans to restore capacity to existing cascades at the facility. It has operated since 2010 and has an existing annual capacity of 4.3 million separative work units, about one-third of current U.S. demand. A 700,000-unit expansion begun last year in an existing building is set to finish in 2027.
In addition to serving as foundational fuel for existing commercial light water nuclear reactors, which generate nearly 20% of U.S. electricity, low enriched uranium produced at the facility will be an essential feedstock to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium for use in advanced reactor designs planned for the 2030s.
The U.S. program is part of a larger effort by Urenco USA's U.K.-based parent to add new enrichment capacity at sites in America and Europe in the next decade. It also is building a facility in England to convert more "tails" of depleted uranium hexafluoride for further use, or to a chemically stable form for disposal.
Bechtel is providing front-end engineering and design services for the project.
