Urenco USA held a groundbreaking ceremony, attended by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, for the planned expansion of its National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, N.M. Tuesday.
The company announced multi-billion-dollar plans in June to expand its New Mexico enrichment facility by almost 50% to meet growing domestic enrichment needs. Urenco USA, an affiliate of the European Urenco, said in its press release it intends to install 2.1 million separative work units (SWU) of new enrichment at its new facility.
During the expansion, up to 24 cascades of gas centrifuges will be installed, with the initial cascades beginning production in 2032 and additional cascades being brought on through 2036, according to the release. This new expanded facility is being pursued in parallel to the company’s current efforts to further enlarge its existing enrichment facility.
“We’re making this substantial commitment to expand our U.S. facility to serve our US customers’ needs,” European Urenco CEO Boris Schucht, who was also in attendance for the ceremony, said in the release.
“But this expansion also supports the U.S. Department of Energy’s goals to accelerate the deployment of new domestic capacity, strengthen the U.S. nuclear fuel supply chain, and reinvigorate the nuclear industrial base,” Schucht added.