Urenco USA Inc. announces next-step HALEU activities

Urenco USA Inc., a US supplier of uranium enrichment services and nuclear fuel cycle products, today announces its capability in the provision of high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU). HALEU (U₂₃₅ enriched up to 19.75 per cent) is a subcategory of LEU (U₂₃₅ enriched up to no more than 20.00 per cent). It will be used for civil, peaceful applications in existing and new power plants as well as for research, test and medical isotopes facilities.

A new program at Urenco covers the production of HALEU. Urenco’s advanced gas centrifuge technology is capable of producing the full range of LEU enrichments, including HALEU.
Several Urenco enrichment facilities are already licensed to produce at enrichments above 5% U235 in line with today’s nuclear industry market requirements. Urenco is now exploring the construction of a dedicated HALEU unit at the UUSA facility. Urenco is progressing the design engineering and related licensing activities to support this project.

Further activity at UUSA is underway to support near-term delivery of slightly greater than 5% U235 enrichments for existing light water reactors interested in higher burn-up rates and/or extended operating cycles.

Thomas Haeberle, Chief Executive of Urenco, said:

“This work falls within the core expertise and technology of Urenco as a leader in the civil nuclear power industry for nearly 50 years, providing enrichment services for customers and meeting 100% of our deliveries.

We have proven enrichment technology which benefits from modular deployment. This was successfully demonstrated when we built the USA’s world scale commercial enrichment plant which can suitably accommodate a HALEU facility.

We are well placed to support operators in industry, medicine and research in order to meet the practical and logistical challenges of producing and transporting HALEU. This represents an exciting next stage in the civil nuclear power industry and we look forward to collaborating with existing and new customers on their requirements and using our expertise to provide a reliable fuel supply for the future demand.”

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