Urenco USA Produces First Domestic Enriched Uranium Supply

Written by Paul Wiseman for IIR News (Sugar Land, Texas)

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Summary

Urenco's plant in New Mexico achieved first production of LEU+ (uranium enriched between 5% and 10% U-235) in December. It is the only U.S. plant with commercial LEU+ capabilities.

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First U.S. Production of LEU+

Urenco USA (Eunice, New Mexico) is enlarging its Eunice facility by about 15%, after it enriched uranium above 5% U-235 (8.5%, to be exact) in December. This falls under the category known as "low enriched uranium plus" (LEU+), which includes all uranium enriched to 5-10% U-235. It is the first such production from a commercial uranium-enrichment facility in the U.S.

Urenco plans to begin production of commercial quantities of LEU+ in mid-2026, with full completion of the expansion expected by 2027. It also announced the beginning of its next cascade of centrifuges, which will expand the facility's capacity by about 15% when it is brought online.

The company received authorization from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on September 30, 2025, to enrich uranium up to 10% U-235. All the plant's cascades are licensed to produce LEU+.

End Uses

Urenco reports that LEU+ will support several advancements in the industry. That includes longer operating cycles for the current fleet of light-water reactors, thereby reducing their operating and maintenance costs. It also will encourage use of new accident-tolerant fuel designs.

Small modular reactors (SMRs) also use LEU+.

LEU+ also can be used as feedstock for the production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), which is enriched to 10-20% U-235. This boost the potential output of future HALEU operations.

Curbing LEU+ Imports

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has been looking to curb Russia's dominance in uranium enrichment since 2024. On May 13 of that year, then-President Joe Biden signed into law a ban on Russian LEU+ imports that took effect on August 11. At that time, Russia had about 44% of the world's uranium enrichment capacity, and it supplied about 35% of U.S. imports.

That law included certain workarounds that kept a semblance of the supply chain intact to prevent outages. At that time, the DOE also announced six companies--not including Urenco--that would "compete for future work to supply LEU" domestically.

Besides Russia, the U.S. imports LEU from France, the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands. Natural uranium concentrate also comes from Canada, Kazakhstan and Australia, and it can be enriched domestically or abroad.

Urenco's production is indeed the first in completely domestic production, but U.S. based Westinghouse (Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania) announced production of LEU+ pellets in August 2024. Those were produced in its Springfields Fuel Manufacturing Facility in the U.K., yet were supported by the DOE's 2024 program.

Urenco USA Installing New Cascades

The company is also in the process of adding 700,000 separative work units (SWU) of capacity at its Eunice plant by 2027. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Chemical Processing Project and Plant databases can learn more about the project--including capacities, investment values and necessary equipment--from a detailed plant profile and project report.

The third new cascade began operations on December 16. The company reports that all three cascades installed in 2025 came online ahead of schedule. Subscribers can learn more about the third cascade from a detailed project report.

Currently, "Urenco USA is the only company to have licensed, built, operated, and expanded a commercial uranium enrichment plant in the United States," said a company press release.

By the Numbers

• 5-10% Uranium-235: This is considered LEU+, efficient fuel for modern reactors and SMRs
• One third: Percent of U.S. LEU+ demand that Urenco can provide

History

LEU+ may be new, but Urenco USA has been enriching uranium in the U.S. since 2010. Its parent company is Urenco (London, England).

Total investment in the Eunice facility is more than $5 billion today, with a U.S. workforce of more than 500, including employees and contractors. Urenco says the plant will have the capacity to meet approximately one-third of the needs of U.S. commercial power plants. Commercial production of LEU+ is expected to begin in 2026.

"In 2025, we have delivered on our plans to launch a new advanced fuels capability and to install new production capacity, demonstrating Urenco USA's commitment to supporting the future needs of our customers and the U.S. nuclear industry as the country increasingly relies on nuclear energy," said John Kirkpatrick, managing director of Urenco USA.

Key Takeaways

• Boosting/creating U.S. production of this key nuclear power plant fuel will reduce reliance on imports, particularly from Russia. In 2024, Russia accounted for about 35% of LEU+ imports.
• So far, Urenco is the only company domestically gearing up to produce LEU+ on a commercial basis. It expects this production to begin in 2026.

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