LEU+ fuels expected to boost reactor fleet efficiency and help advanced design deployment
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has allowed Urenco’s US-based subsidiary (UUSA) to take a step closer towards increasing enrichment levels up to 10% uranium-235 at its New Mexico manufacturing facility, a statement by the company said.
According to the statement, the NRC has approved an amendment to Urenco’s existing enrichment licence.
The NRC will next review UUSA’s implementation of the amendment’s requirements, with authorisation to begin enrichment at the new level expected by late spring 2025.
The license allows UUSA to produce enrichment levels of up to 10% U-235 across all cascades at its Eunice facility in New Mexico.
The move is important for supporting the creation of nuclear fuels that will reduce outage cycles for operators and provide fuels for some advanced reactor designs, said John Kirkpatrick, UUSA managing director.
“UUSA currently has a capacity of 4.4 million separative work units (SWU*), which supplies one-third of the domestic enrichment demand, and we are licensed to produce up to 10 million SWU,” said Kirkpatrick.
In 2023, Urenco announced a 15% capacity expansion of its Eunice site, which is expected to bring an additional 700,000 SWU per year in 2027. A first batch of centrifuges was installed in October 2024 and the company said the project was on schedule.
Urenco has said the Eunice site “has the physical space and licence” to expand its annual production up to 10 million SWU per year.
Fuels enriched to uranium-235 content between 5% and 10% are known as low-enriched uranium plus (LEU+) fuels. Higher enrichment levels are expected to improve fuel economy for operators because reactors can run for longer operating cycles of up to 24 months as opposed to the usual 12 or 18-month cycles.
LEU+ could also help the development of some advanced reactor designs until higher-yield Haleu (high-assay, low-enriched uranium) become available at the end of the decade.
Urenco operates enrichment plants in the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands and supplies customers in Europe and North America. Plans have been announced for capacity expansions across all sites in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The US is Urenco’s largest market and the company is gearing up for growing LEU+ demand as US utilities have been eyeing higher efficiency fuels for some years now.
Magnus Mori, head of technical sales at Urenco, told NucNet in October that Urenco is preparing to start commercial delivery of LEU+ to utility clients in North America as early as 2026.
The Anglo-German-Dutch company will be aiming to eventually have the permits and capacity to enrich LEU+ to 10% at all of its sites, but priority will be given to the plants in the US and the UK, said Mori.
* A separative work unit (SWU) is the standard measure of the effort required to separate uranium-235 (U-235) and uranium-238 (U-238). Both are isotopes of uranium, but they differ in the number of neutrons in their nuclei and have different properties and uses. U-235 is used as fuel in nuclear power plants, naval ships and submarines, and in nuclear weapons. U-235 must be separated from the more plentiful isotope U-238 for its various uses.
