The US Department of Energy awarded approximately $2.7 billion in contracts to domestic uranium enrichment companies to expand production of enriched uranium fuel, reducing US dependence on Russian uranium supplies that had accounted for roughly 25% of US reactor fuel imports before Congress passed the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act.
Centrus Energy, which operates the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, and Urenco USA, based in Eunice, New Mexico, were the primary recipients. The contracts are structured to accelerate capacity expansion at both facilities over a multi-year period. Centrus has been operating a demonstration cascade of 16 centrifuge machines at Piketon; the DOE funding is intended to enable a full commercial-scale deployment of additional machines.
The United States currently enriches only a fraction of the uranium fuel consumed by its 93 nuclear reactors domestically. The majority of enrichment services have historically been purchased from Urenco's European operations, Orano in France, and Rosatom's TENEX subsidiary in Russia. The congressional ban on Russian enriched uranium, which took effect in 2024, created a gap that domestic enrichment expansion is intended to fill.
High-assay low-enriched uranium, known as HALEU, is a fuel type required by most advanced reactor designs including TerraPower's Natrium reactor, X-energy's Xe-100, and several other Generation IV designs. The DOE has also funded separate HALEU production initiatives specifically to support the advanced reactor pipeline.
Uranium enrichment is an energy-intensive industrial process. A full-scale enrichment facility represents a significant capital investment and multi-decade operating commitment, making federal contract support a prerequisite for private investment in new domestic capacity.
Source: US Department of Energy -- https://www.energy.gov/ne/nuclear-fuel-cycle