US-based Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) has acquired a 665-acre (269 hectares) parcel of land for its planned Paducah laser uranium enrichment facility (PLEF) in Kentucky.

The land was previously owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and managed by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

It is next to the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) former first-generation Paducah gaseous diffusion plant, which stopped operating in 2013, and provides access to an area where depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF6) tails inventories are stored. This will minimise transportation between the gaseous diffusion plant and the proposed PLEF site.