Urenco USA completed the installation of its sixth new cascade at the National Enrichment Facility in New Mexico, hitting the 75% completion mark in its enrichment expansion plan.
Urenco USA, an affiliate of the European company Urenco, said in a press release the production of the sixth cascade began Oct. 8. The company expects to install the seventh cascade later this year and the eighth and final one in spring 2027.
The company previously installed its fourth cascade in April and fifth in July. The additional cascades are part of Urenco’s plan to expand its uranium enrichment capacity at its Eunice, N.M. facility from 2025 to 2027. This plan would bring 700,000 new separative work units (SWU) online to support the Department of Energy’s recent efforts to expand domestic enrichment capacity.
“We are consistently delivering new capacity to help fuel the U.S. nuclear industry and allied nations, and our teams are doing it ahead of schedule and on budget,” Jody Blackshear, managing director of Urenco USA, said in the release. “This experience will support our larger capacity programs in the years ahead as we look to increase our enrichment production by more than 50% to meet the needs of our customers with traditional and advanced reactors.”
After this program, Urenco plans to begin refurbishing existing capacity at the National Enrichment Facility as a part of the company’s long-term capital investments in the plant.
Additionally, by 2029, it hopes to start working on installing 2.1 million SWU of new enrichment capacity. In 2032. The expansion program should be complete by the end of 2036, Urenco said.
