HWBRIEF
UK , German , and Dutch owned consortium to add 2.1 million separative work units (SWU), the standard measure of uranium enrichment work, at Eunice, New Mexico, by 2036 — a roughly 50% jump in U.S.
Urenco, a UK-, German-, and Dutch-owned consortium, broke ground at its National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico on a new cascade hall that will add 2.1 million separative work units (SWU), the standard measure of enrichment work a plant can do, to its US capacity by 2036.
The more-than-$8 billion project, built without public funding and backed by long-term utility contracts, will install 24 gas-centrifuge cascades at the site, which opened in 2010. Each cascade is a linked bank of centrifuges that spin uranium hexafluoride, raising the share of fissile U-235 from its natural 0.7% to the 3–5% concentration commercial reactors need.
Initial cascades start in 2032, with the rest online by 2036, supporting 300 to 600 peak construction jobs and about 70 long-term operations roles. The site already supplies about one-third of US commercial enrichment needs at 4.3 million SWU per year, and the addition amounts to a roughly 50% increase in US capacity.
Urenco is the only Western provider of enrichment services to US utilities, with contracts covering 35 of the country's 93 operational reactors. CEO Boris Schucht told World Nuclear News the expansion supports the Department of Energy's mission to rebuild the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain.