The Department of Energy said Monday it was awarding $2.7 billion total in task orders to three companies with the goal of strengthening domestic uranium enrichment over the next ten years.
American Centrifuge Operating, a Centrus company, and General Matter are both receiving $900 million to create a domestic high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment capacity. Orano Federal Services is receiving $900 million to expand the U.S. domestic low-enriched uranium (LEU) capacity.
DOE signed HALEU and LEU contracts with six total companies late in 2024. DOE’s Monday press release said developing domestic production capacity for both will ensure an adequate fuel supply for the nation’s 94 commercial reactors and future deployments of advanced nuclear reactors.
The Donald Trump administration has issued a number of executive orders aimed at strengthening the domestic nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium enrichment and conversion as well as domestic uranium production. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright emphasized the importance of domestic uranium production in a hearing in June, mourning that there is “no American-owned enrichment based in the United States of America” today, and that he strives to build “commercial enrichment in the United States.”
The Joe Biden administration has also worked to increase American domestic uranium enrichment capabilities with a ban on Russian-imported uranium that will begin in 2028.