EUNICE, N.M. — Urenco USA has produced its first commercial cylinder of low-enriched uranium plus, or LEU+, the company announced Monday, marking what it called the first commercial production of the higher-enriched nuclear fuel product in the Western world.
The milestone opens a new fuel option for existing light water reactors and for advanced reactor designs under development that require higher levels of enriched uranium, according to the company.
“A tremendous amount of work has gone into preparing our plant and our staff to reach this achievement,” Jody Blackshear, managing director of Urenco USA, said in a statement. “Through the coordinated efforts of teams from across our site and company, we can now supply an innovative fuel option for our customers and support the next generation of nuclear fuel technologies.”
Urenco USA operates the National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, a uranium enrichment plant that began operating in 2010. Access to LEU+ will let existing reactors run longer cycles between refueling outages, reducing operations and maintenance costs, the company said. Several advanced reactor technologies in development are also expected to use LEU+ as fuel.
LEU+ can additionally serve as feedstock for producing high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, which Centrus Energy has been producing at its Piketon, Ohio, enrichment plant as part of a separate, multibillion-dollar expansion of domestic enrichment capacity.
Natural uranium is composed of more than 99% U-238 and less than 1% U-235, the fissionable isotope. Standard low-enriched uranium raises the U-235 content to between 3% and 5%. LEU+ raises that level to between 5% and 10%, while HALEU — which requires a dedicated facility and separate federal authorization — is enriched to between 10% and 20%.
Urenco USA received authorization from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September 2025 to enrich uranium up to 10% U-235, making it the first commercial uranium enricher authorized to produce LEU+. All of the plant’s gas centrifuge cascades are licensed to produce the product, the company said.
The company is also expanding its New Mexico facility, with plans to grow domestic enrichment capacity to more than 7 million separative work units over the next decade. Construction on a new enrichment plant at the site is set to begin in 2029, adding 2.1 million separative work units of capacity, with initial cascades starting production in 2032 and additional cascades installed through 2036.
Urenco USA’s existing facility has an annual capacity of 4.3 million separative work units, meeting about one-third of current U.S. demand for low-enriched uranium, according to the company. More than 500 employees and long-term contractors work at the site, which has delivered every customer order on time since its first product shipment in 2012.
The information contained in this story was obtained from Urenco USA.
