Urenco USA starts sixth cascade, installed capacity tops 500,000 SWU
Eight new cascades will add 700,000 SWU between 2025 and 2027; the seventh is due later this year and the eighth in spring 2027.
Key facts
- New enrichment plant construction starts 2029 with 2.1 million SWU, first cascades due 2032
- Existing site capacity is 4.3 million SWU, about one-third of U.S. low-enriched uranium demand
- Refurbishment of existing cascades at the New Mexico site begins in 2027
- Urenco USA targets more than 7 million SWU of domestic capacity within a decade
- More than 50 million SWU produced since the first product shipment in 2012
Urenco USA started production in the sixth of eight new centrifuge cascades at its National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico, the company said on October 8. The cascades are being added to an existing building at the site as part of 700,000 SWU of new capacity Urenco USA is installing between 2025 and 2027. Six installed cascades can produce more than 500,000 SWU a year.
Urenco USA expects to install the seventh cascade later this year and the final cascade in the spring of 2027. Starting in 2027, it will also refurbish existing cascades at the site as part of capital investments in the facility.
The company said it aims to expand its domestic enrichment capacity to more than 7 million SWU over the next decade. In 2029, Urenco USA will begin construction of a new enrichment plant at the facility and will install 2.1 million SWU of new capacity, with initial cascades starting production in 2032 and additional cascades installed through 2036.
Jody Blackshear, managing director of Urenco USA, said its teams are delivering the new capacity "ahead of schedule and on budget."
The National Enrichment Facility began operations in 2010 and has an existing annual capacity of 4.3 million SWU, which the company says can meet approximately one-third of current U.S. demand for low enriched uranium.
