Westinghouse has made plans to put $1 billion into constructing an advanced nuclear fuel factory at its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina.
Cranberry Township, Penn.-based Westinghouse said Wednesday the proposed fuel factory will produce low enriched uranium plus (LEU+) fuel to support its AP1000 reactor fleet. It hopes to have the new facility up and running by 2030, according to the press release.
LEU+ fuel is enriched to higher levels of uranium enrichment, typically ranging from 5% to 8%. This alternative fuel to low enriched uranium (LEU) is seen as a way to extend operating cycles and assist with lowering operational costs.
“The Department of Energy is investing billions to restore American uranium enrichment capabilities for both low-enriched uranium and high-assay low-enriched uranium,” Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish said. “Westinghouse’s nearly $1 billion investment in South Carolina builds on that effort by expanding the manufacturing capacity needed to turn enriched uranium into fuel that powers our existing reactors and supports the next generation of nuclear technology.”
Westinghouse said its investment in LEU+ fuel aligns with the Department of Energy’s Utility Power Reactor Incremental Scaling Effort (UPRISE) program. UPRISE, announced in March, focuses on financially supporting utilities seeking uprates and license extensions for the current domestic nuclear fleet. The program aims to add several thousand megawatts of new nuclear power through uprates by 2029.
The Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility, built in 1968, is a campus that covers 1,155 acres of land and has 550,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space. In August 2023, Westinghouse previously announced plans to create the center to produce LEU+ at the facility and is now moving forward with plans to construct with Wednesday’s announcement.
The slightly higher enriched uranium was first commercially deployed in April 2025 when Westinghouse loaded LEU+ fuel into Unit 2 at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle in Georgia. Later in 2025, Urenco USA received authorization from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to commercially enrich uranium up to 10% and completed its first production run in December 2025.
