GLE is the exclusive worldwide licensee of the laser enrichment Silex technology, which Silex says is “the future of uranium enrichment”.
The technology is a unique laser-based process that has a number of advantages over other uranium enrichment processes including higher efficiency, lower costs and greater flexibility in producing advanced fuels for advanced small modular reactors.
GLE is commercialising the technology to produce nuclear fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. The company has exclusive rights to enrich a significant portion of the US Department of Energy’s depleted uranium “tails” at a proposed facility in Paducah, Kentucky.
To facilitate the potential commercial deployment of the technology in the US, an agreement between the governments of the US and Australia was signed in May 2000.
The full-scale laser system module tested by Silex was designed, built and tested at the company’s Lucas Heights laser technology development centre.
Silex said the testing demonstrates the ability of its laser systems to operate reliably at commercial-scale for extended periods.
GLE Planning Feasibility Study For Paducah Facility
GLE is planning to complete the commercial pilot demonstration project by the mid-2020s, after which it will carry out a feasibility assessment for the proposed Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility in Kentucky.
GLE hopes to use the Paducah facility for the production of natural grade uranium in the late 2020s via the enrichment of US government-owned tails inventories under an agreement signed between GLE and the DOE in 2016.
GLE’s shareholders, Silex and Canadian uranium company Cameco, are assessing the potential acceleration of this timeline, with a view to starting commercial operations as early as 2027, “depending on market demand and other factors”.
The Silex technology is the only third-generation laser-based uranium enrichment technology under commercial development today.
It could enable GLE to become a major contributor to nuclear fuel production for the world’s current and future nuclear reactor fleets, through the production of uranium at Paducah.
