Plans part of efforts to end imports from Russia
France’s state-owned nuclear fuel company Orano has chosen Oak Ridge, Tennessee as a preferred site to build a multi-billion-dollar US uranium enrichment plant – with the facility potentially up and running in the early 2030s.
The move comes months after president Joe Biden signed legislation meant to end dependence on Russia, the world’s top supplier of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.
Biden’s signature unlocked some $2.7bn (€2.4bn) in spending, previously approved by Congress, to build up domestic uranium supplies for US nuclear plants.
That money was contingent on the federal government imposing limits on Russian uranium imports.
Jean-Luc Palayer, chief executive officer and president of Bethesda, Maryland-based Orano USA, said the company was preparing the next required steps for the plant, including securing US federal support, customer commitments, and obtaining a licence from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and approval from Orano’s board.
“But today we celebrate this major milestone towards bringing a new enrichment facility online to help meet our country’s need for an increased, secure domestic nuclear fuel supply,” said Palayer.
Palayer said at a recent conference that if the US and its allies want to be the gold medallists in nuclear energy by 2050 “we need to have reprocessing in this country”.
Orano said last year it would invest in increasing production capacity at its uranium enrichment facility in southern France, largely to meet demand from its US clients.
The expansion would help to reduce the risk of any halt in supplies from Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which provides about 30% of the West’s enriched uranium, according to Orano.
