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Urenco USA, which produces low-enriched uranium at the National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, announced an expansion to the plant to meet demand from nuclear power facilities.

A subsidiary of London-based Urenco Global, the company has operated the facility, located in the Oil Patch near the Texas border, since 2010. It is the only such uranium enrichment facility in the U.S.

Urenco says it sees strong market demand for low-enriched uranium as governments mandate transitions off of fossil fuels.

Small modular nuclear reactors are also being deployed commercially as the Trump administration encourages growth in the nuclear energy sector. Nuclear power, the company said in a news release this week, is 鈥渧ital to the nation鈥檚 energy security.鈥�

Low-enriched uranium 鈥渟erves as the foundational fuel for America鈥檚 existing operating fleet of commercial light-water reactors, which generate nearly 20% of the nation鈥檚 electricity,鈥� Urenco said in the announcement.

The company added that it will also serve as essential feedstock to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, which will be used in advanced reactor designs planned for deployment in the 2030s.

Uranium ore, when mined, comprises 0.7% of the key uranium-235 isotope necessary for nuclear fuel, notes the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. At Urenco鈥檚 plant, Uranium hexafluoride is introduced into gas centrifuges that rotate at high speeds, separating lighter uranium-235 gas from heavier molecules. The stream is fed into more centrifuges 鈥� configured as a cascade 鈥� before reaching up to 5% enrichment.

As a result of the expansion, which will increase uranium enrichment at the plant by nearly 50%, the company will install up to 24 cascades of centrifuges, with the initial cascades starting production in 2032 and additional cascades installed through 2036.

The company did not say how much it was investing in the latest expansion, but said it has poured more than $5 billion of private capital into the facility since 2006.

The project will support up to 600 jobs during the peak construction period and up to 70 new jobs in long-term operations at the site. Currently, 500 Urenco staff and contractors work at the facility, Urenco said.

The facility has an existing annual capacity of 4.3 million separative work units, about one-third of current U.S. demand 鈥� the standard measure of the effort required to separate uranium isotopes. It will install an additional 2.1 million units for the expansion.

Urenco Global has a goal to install 4.6 million units of enrichment capacity at sites across the U.S., the Netherlands and Germany.

John Kirkpatrick, managing director of the company鈥檚 U.S. operations, called the move the 鈥渕ost transformative expansion decision for Urenco in the past decade.鈥�

鈥淲e are already preparing for the expansion and are excited to continue the work done onsite in recent years to add new capacity to our existing plant,鈥� Kirkpatrick said.

Urenco鈥檚 expansion in Eunice comes as another company, sa国际传媒官网网页入口-based Eden Radioisotopes, in May submitted an application to the NRC to construct a facility in the area to produce isotopes for medical purposes.

Justin Horwath covers tech and energy for the Journal. He can be reached at jhorwath@abqjournal.com.