The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has authorized Urenco USA to produce low-enriched uranium plus, becoming the first commercial uranium enricher to do so, according to its Thursday press release.
Initial production of low-enriched uranium plus is scheduled to start later this year and the first deliveries to fuel fabricator planned for 2026, Urenco USA said. NRC authorized Urenco USA’s new line at the Louisiana Energy Services facility in Eunice, N.M. on Tuesday in a letter.
In low-enriched uranium plus level U-235 is enriched to 5-10%. In low-enriched uranium its U-235 level is raised between 3-5% and high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) is enriched between 10-20%.
As Urenco USA prepares to produce the new level of enrichment, the company received license amendments from the NRC in December 2024 and this August.
All the plant’s existing and future cascades will be licensed to produce low-enriched uranium and low-enriched uranium plus, Urenco USA said.
Low-enriched uranium plus can allow longer operating cycles with less refueling outages, reducing operations and maintenance costs for the current U.S. reactor fleet, the company said. It also can serve as a feedstock for future U.S. enrichment facilities that are designed to produce HALEU. It will increase the amount of HALEU that the facility could produce.
Current U.S. reactors typically use low-enriched uranium for its fuel, while various upcoming advanced reactors are expected to use HALEU. While low-enriched uranium plus can extend current reactors’ operations, it can also be used as fuel for the upcoming reactor technologies, Urenco USA said.
“With LEU+ (low-enriched uranium plus) as an option for fueling America’s reactors, current nuclear plant operators can realize new gains in operations and efficiencies that will support even stronger performance by the country’s existing reactor fleet, and advanced reactor developers will have a reliable option to fuel their new designs,” Urenco USA managing director John Kirkpatrick said in the release.