Company to install 2.1 million separative work units of new capacity
Urenco USA has held a groundbreaking ceremony for the future expansion of the country’s only commercial uranium enrichment facility, in the state of New Mexico.
In June, the company announced that it will expand the capacity of the facility by nearly 50%, marking a major commitment to strengthening the US nuclear fuel supply chain as the country increases the use of nuclear power.
The multi-billion-dollar investment will fund the construction of a new enrichment plant at the National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico, enabling the increased production of low-enriched uranium (LEU) vital to the nation’s energy security.
In his remarks following the groundbreaking, Urenco’s chief executive officer Boris Schucht said: “We’re making this substantial commitment to expand our US facility to serve our US customers’ needs.
“But this expansion also supports the US Department of Energy’s goals to accelerate the deployment of new domestic capacity, strengthen the US nuclear fuel supply chain, and reinvigorate the nuclear industrial base.”
During the expansion, Urenco will install 2.1 million separative work units (SWU) of new enrichment capacity using the company’s proven gas-centrifuge enrichment technology in 24 cascades of centrifuges, with the initial cascades starting production in 2032 and additional cascades installed through 2036.
SWU is the standard measure of the effort required to separate U-235 and U-238. Uranium enrichment is the process of increasing the concentration of the U-235 isotope in natural uranium and decreasing that of the U-238 isotope to make it suitable for use in nuclear reactors.
The expansion will support between 300-600 US jobs during the peak construction period and 70 jobs in long-term operations at the site.
