Urenco USA brings fifth new enrichment cascade online in New Mexico

Urenco USA brought its fifth new enrichment cascade into production at the National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico, the United States’ only commercial enrichment plant. The cascade began production on June 22 and was online by June 30.

The new unit is part of a program launched in 2025 to add 700,000 separative work units of enrichment capacity by early 2027. The program is designed to strengthen the fuel supply chain for the U.S. market and beyond. The company says the current expansion will increase plant capacity by 15 percent and that all of the new cascades have come on ahead of schedule and on budget so far.

Enrichment remains one of the main bottlenecks between reactor demand and usable fuel, especially as the industry looks toward more advanced designs and higher-assay fuel requirements. Urenco says the low-enriched uranium produced at Eunice can also serve as feedstock for future HALEU production for advanced reactors planned for the 2030s.

Urenco USA says the Eunice facility has operated commercially since 2010 and now supplies about one-third of current U.S. enrichment demand. The company says it has put more than $5 billion of private capital into the site since 2006.

The Department of Energy says the United States historically imported 20 to 25 percent of its enriched uranium from Russia, while the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act took effect in August 2024. DOE’s waiver process for Russian LEU imports runs through December 31, 2040.

Urenco will start refurbishing existing cascades next year and has already begun building a centrifuge storage facility to hold removed equipment before future disposal, with completion expected in early 2027. In June, it announced a separate plan to build a new plant at the same Eunice site, adding 2.1 million SWU of capacity and nearly 50 percent more than today’s level.