The US Department of Energy has awarded three task orders totaling $2.7 billion to three companies to expand domestic production of enriched uranium. According to the agency, the 10-year work orders would expand US low-enriched uranium (LEU) capacity and create new supply chains and innovations to manufacture high-enriched low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for nuclear power generation.
The development of new domestic production capacity “ensures that there is an adequate supply of fuel to sustain the operations of the nation’s 94 commercial reactors, creates a strong foundation to supply future deployments of advanced nuclear reactors,” the agency said.
San Francisco-based General Matter, one of two companies awarded $900 million to build domestic HALEU enrichment capacity, is building a $1.5 billion commercial uranium enrichment facility on a 100-acre leased site at the former federal gaseous diffusion plant in Paducah, Kentucky. In a statement on social media, the company said the task order “accelerates this plan and will make Paducah, Kentucky, the cornerstone of America’s enrichment once again.”
The other HALEU task order was awarded to American Centrifuge Operating, a branch of Bethesda, Md.-based Centrus Energy, which 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 conducting uranium enrichment operations since 2023 at its American centrifuge plant in Piketon, Ohio, where the company said it is a “pioneer” in HALEU production under government contract. In December, Centrus announced the start of domestic centrifuge manufacturing to support commercial LEU enrichment activities at Piketon, with the first new production capacity expected to come 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 US subsidiary of the French-owned company says the award will accelerate development of a $5 billion facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Located on a largely green 920-acre site, the multi-structure initial phase of the 750,000-square-foot project is on track for federal licensing filing early this year, the company said, with LEU production scheduled to begin in 2031. Orano is currently expanding its current Georges Besse II commercial scale. expansion” at the US production site.
The three companies selected for the task orders were among six companies contracted by the department last year for LEU and HALEU enrichment, allowing them to bid for 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, North Carolina, to continue advancing next-generation laser-based uranium enrichment technology. The company, which also competed for a 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 tailings.
Operations of the new facility could begin in 2030.
