WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States needs to reestablish a robust domestic uranium enrichment program in order to meet future nuclear goals, Department of Energy Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish said here Thursday.
“When I first came onboard, I recognized this really is the biggest risk to the nuclear industry,” Garrish said of domestic uranium enrichment in his opening statement.
Garrish, along with John Wagner, DOE Idaho National Laboratory director, and Mike Laufer, Kairos Power CEO, testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources on DOE’s implementation of President Donald Trump’s May 23, 2025 nuclear-related executive orders.
In those executive orders, the Trump White House emphasized strengthening domestic enrichment within the nuclear fuel cycle.
In 2024, Russian imports accounted for 20% of the enriched uranium used by the domestic fleet. With the passing of the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act of 2024, which is set to begin in 2028, the United States is set to have to fill in the gap of 3 million Separative Work Units (SWU) to maintain its current reactors, Garrish said.
“When I last held this job in the 80s, the U.S. had 70% of the domestic market, but now we have a very small share and much is imported,” Garrish said.
More work is needed to ensure adequate domestic capacity, Garish said. In January, DOE awarded $2.7 billion to three U.S. domestic uranium enrichment companies to help build a foundation for the U.S. market. The awards focus on both high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment capacity and expanding low-enriched uranium (LEU) enrichment resources.
“Thanks to the appropriations of Congress, we are now in the process of finalizing domestic enrichment to the amount of $2.7 billion and that is going to make U.S. enrichment available to the nation without needing to have the Russians, which are banned by January of 2028,” Garrish said to Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
DOE is in the process of beefing up its enrichment program in the coming months. Once completed, the agency will start to build domestic enrichment facilities, Garrish said in response to a question from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
During the hearing, Barrasso said he had heard the U.S. lacks domestic capacity to convert uranium and has become a possible bottleneck to achieving more nuclear power. In addition, Wagner told the panel other capabilities of the nuclear fuel cycle also need to be addressed.
“The fuel cycle is still our most critical near-term vulnerability, in my opinion,” Wagner said. “The only operating uranium mill we have in this country is in Utah and its capacity is far less than what we will need…those other parts, besides enrichment, need more attention as well.”
Wagner said there is only one uranium conversion facility in the U.S. and it has a capacity for up to a third of what the country needs. Metropolis Works facility, formerly operated by Honeywell and now operated by Solstice Advanced Materials, in Metropolis, Ill. is the sole uranium conversion facility in the U.S.