Urenco produces first 5% uranium cylinder in New Mexico

Urenco USA announced on Monday that it has produced a cylinder of uranium fuel with an enrichment level above 5 percent. The company stated that no other entity is currently producing this specific grade of uranium for sale to Western companies. The fuel is designated as LEU+, or low-enriched uranium plus.

Commercial nuclear reactors typically use uranium enriched to between 3 percent and 5 percent of the U-235 isotope. The new LEU+ product contains between 5 percent and 10 percent U-235. Urenco explained that higher enrichment levels allow the fuel to last longer inside nuclear reactors.

Jeremy Derryberry, the communications director for Urenco USA, identified the target market for this new fuel. He said the primary customers are utilities operating light-water nuclear reactors and companies building more advanced reactor designs. Derryberry noted that 94 reactors operate across the United States today. Urenco has supplied fuel to all of them since opening in 2010.

The production took place at the National Enrichment Facility south of Hobbs. Louisiana Energy Services operates this plant, which is the only commercial-scale producer of enriched uranium in America. Urenco USA is a subsidiary of London-based Urenco Limited. That parent company is owned by the United Kingdom government, the Dutch government, and two German energy companies.

The facility received authorization from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September 2025 to enrich uranium up to 10 percent of U-235. This follows a 2024 law signed by President Joe Biden that banned imports of low-enriched uranium from Russia through 2040. Louisiana Energy Services also received $2 million in U.S. Department of Energy funds to boost domestic fuel capacity.

Urenco stated it will expand its domestic enrichment production capacity at the Eunice plant. Derryberry said 350 employees and 150 contractors currently work at the site. The company plans to begin construction of a new enrichment plant there in 2029.

Construction of new cascades, which are groups of centrifuges that separate U-235, will begin in 2032. The press release stated that additional capacity will be installed through 2036.