General Matter has submitted a license application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a commercial uranium enrichment facility in Paducah, Kentucky. The application runs to more than 1,000 pages and includes an integrated safety analysis, an environmental report, a fire hazards analysis, a decommissioning funding plan, security protocols and emergency plans.
The filing was made under 10 CFR Part 70, the standard federal process for uranium enrichment licenses. General Matter said it intends to submit an amendment next year to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. Splitting the application into two parts is meant to allow construction to begin sooner. The company said it plans to enrich uranium at commercial scale by the end of the decade and to produce LEU, LEU+ and HALEU by 2030.
The project has federal ties. The Department of Energy selected General Matter in October 2024 as one of four companies to provide enrichment services to help establish a US HALEU supply. In August 2025, the company signed a lease with DOE for a 100-acre parcel at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The lease includes at least 7,600 cylinders of existing uranium hexafluoride to supply future re-enrichment operations. Pre-construction work, including site clearing, soil work and utilities installation, is already under way.
The United States has depended on overseas enrichment since the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant closed in 2013. The Urenco USA plant at Eunice, New Mexico, is the only commercial enrichment capacity now operating in the country.
HALEU contains 10 to 20 percent uranium-235, and many advanced reactor designs and small modular reactors require it.
Source: World Nuclear News - https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/general-matter-submits-enrichment-plant-licence-application