Uranium enrichment company Urenco USA has completed installation and startup of its fourth new cascade of gas centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility in New Mexico, marking the half-way point of its US capacity expansion programme.

The company’s newest cascade began producing low-enriched uranium (LEU) on 30 March. All four cascades installed during the expansion began operating ahead of schedule and all have been on budget.

The company is installing 700,000 separative work units (SWU) of new capacity at the site between 2025-2027. A SWU is the standard measure of the effort required to separate uranium-235 and uranium-238.