Pilot manufacturing expected to start by the end of 2025
Urenco’s US-based subsidiary Urenco USA (UUSA) has received authorisation from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to enrich uranium up to 10% U-235 (uranium-235), a statement by the company said on Thursday.
Urenco said the permit means its Eunice site in New Mexico has become the first commercial uranium enrichment facility in the US to produce so-called low-enriched uranium plus (LEU+).
The NRC issued its approval on 30 September after UUSA completed an operational readiness review, implemented system upgrades and safety modifications, and made extensive changes to its plant procedures.
The company said initial production of LEU+ will begin this year, with the first deliveries to a fuel manufacturer expected in 2026.
In December 2024, the NRC approve an amendment to UUSA’s existing Eunice licence towards increasing enrichment levels up to 10% U-235. The commission said at the time it had to still review the implementation of the amendment’s requirements.
The license allows UUSA to produce enrichment levels of up to 10% U-235 across all cascades at its Eunice facility.
UUSA managing director John Kirkpatrick said the new product would “support the long-term success of the US nuclear industry” by helping operators extend reactor cycles and reduce refuelling outages, potentially cutting costs, and improving performance.
LEU+ can also fuel many of the advanced reactor designs now under development in the US.
The company also said that LEU+ could serve as an important feedstock for a future US facility to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (Haleu), needed for majority of next-generation reactors.
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. The project began in October 2024.
Low-enriched uranium was already produced at two new cascades, first in May 2025 and then in September 2025.
Traditional LEU is limited to enrichment levels of about 5% of U-235, while LEU+ refers to nuclear fuel enriched to between 5% and 10% U-235.
Fuels containing LEU+ can improve the efficiency of existing reactors by providing higher burnups, longer fuel cycles of from 18 to 24 months and by producing less spent fuel waste.
Haleu, for comparison, has an enrichment level of 10% to 20% U-235. The US has mounted an effort to reach commercial scale Haleu production by the end of the decade to coincide with expected advanced reactor deployments.
The US is expected to be the first major market for LEU+, with demand driven by its existing reactor fleet operators and advanced reactor fuel testing and deployment plans.
Magnus Mori, head of technical sales at Urenco, told NucNet in late 2024 that Urenco had not supplied LEU+ for fuel fabrication to clients at the time, but the company had several contracts signed with utilities in North America for potential deliveries targeted for 2026 or early 2027.
He said the commercial delivery of LEU+ would depend on the licensing progress of advanced, or accident-tolerant fuels, which are being tested at several US nuclear plants.
* SWUs are the standard measure of the effort required in a uranium enrichment facility to separate uranium-235 (U-235) from uranium-238 (U-238), thereby increasing the concentration of U-235, the isotope that can split to produce energy.
