DOE Selects Four Companies to Boost U.S. HALEU Enrichment for Advanced Nuclear
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded contracts with a total potential value of $8 million to four nuclear fuel companies to further U.S. enrichment capabilities for high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU), a critical piece of the next-generation nuclear supply chain.
The selected companies include Centrus Energy’s American Centrifuge Operating, URENCO’s Louisiana Energy Services, Orano Federal Services, and General Matter. The DOE on Oct. 17 said the contracts would allow the selected companies to bid on future work to produce and store HALEU in the form of uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6), which will eventually be made into fuel for advanced reactors.
“All contracts will last for up to 10 years, and each awardee will receive a minimum contract of $2 million, with up to $2.7 billion available for these services, subject to the availability of appropriations,” the agency said. The HALEU that DOE acquires through these contracts “will be used to support reactors like those under development through DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program—TerraPower’s Natrium reactor and X-energy’s Xe-100,” it noted.
Building Out the Domestic HALEU Supply Chain
The measure marks a critical step to expand the domestic HALEU supply chain. While the existing U.S. fleet runs on uranium fuel enriched up to 5% with uranium-235 (U-235), HALEU is a nuclear material enriched between 5% to 20%. The material has several uses in fuel for advanced reactors, including for tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel. HALEU may also be used in operating reactors (enriched between 5% and 10%) to boost their performance. 
This graphic from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) illustrates the many steps within an integrated high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) supply chain. Source: INL
While the DOE has been working to provide small quantities of HALEU from spent fuel recycling, it is currently pursuing several pathways to secure a domestic HALEU supply. Under the HALEU Availability Program (HAP), established by the Energy Act of 2020, the agency issued two requests for proposals (RFPs)—for enrichment and deconversion—to acquire HALEU through purchase agreements with domestic industry partners. (In June, separately, the DOE launched an RFP to buy low-enriched uranium from domestic suppliers to sever U.S. reliance on Russian imports).
The effort is part of a larger bid by the DOE to spur demand for additional HALEU production and kickstart private investment in the domestic nuclear fuel supply infrastructure. “Currently, commercial nuclear fuel suppliers can’t produce HALEU largely due to market uncertainties and infrastructure gaps. This poses a concern for the development, demonstration, and deployment of many advanced nuclear technologies,” the DOE has said.
As POWER has reported, nuclear fuel manufacturers have expressed interest in customizing and expanding their uranium enrichment capacity. However, they have underscored the need to underwrite the significant capital investments this effort will require. The HAP measures will leverage $700 million in funding allocated by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to support HAP activities. That funding is available through Sept. 30, 2026. In addition, the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act (H.R. 1042), enacted in May 2024, unlocked $2.7 billion to jumpstart new enrichment capacity in the U.S.
In March 2024, the DOE noted it closed two separate requests for proposals (RFPs) for the purchase of HALEU enrichment and deconversion services. On Oct. 8, it announced the complete list of successful bidders that will provide deconversion services to deconvert HALEU from UF6 to uranium oxide and/or uranium metal forms. Selections include: Nuclear Fuel Services, part of BWX Technologies (BWXT); American Centrifuge Operating, part of Centrus Energy; Framatome; GE Vernova; Orano; and Westinghouse.
Enrichment Contracts May Support Expansion of Current Facilities
So far, HALEU enrichment capabilities are being demonstrated by Centrus under a DOE contract. Centrus in October 2023 kicked off enrichment operations at its American Centrifuge Plant cascade in Piketon, Ohio. In November 2023, the company announced the delivery of its first 20 kilograms (kg) of HALEU. Under its contract with the DOE, the facility is slated to produce 900 kg for a full year. The DOE, which owns the HALEU produced from the demonstration cascade, is compensating Centrus on a “cost-plus-incentive-fee” basis, with an expected Phase 2 contract value of approximately $90 million, subject to Congressional appropriations. A contract gives the DOE options to pay for up to nine additional years of production from the cascade beyond the base contract.
In a statement on Thursday, Centrus president and CEO Amir Vexler said the DOE’s enrichment contract awarded to its subsidiary, American Centrifuge Operating (ACO), “could facilitate the potential expansion of Centrus’ first-of-a-kind HALEU production capacity to help meet the needs of the advanced nuclear industry and the nation.” The contract “represents a critical piece of the public-private partnership we are working to build so that we can restore a robust, American-owned uranium enrichment capability to power the future of nuclear energy,” he said.
Under the contract, ACO will “manufacture the centrifuges and supporting equipment exclusively in the U.S., relying upon domestic engineering and a domestic supply chain that currently spans 14 major, American-owned suppliers in 13 states and is expected to grow,” the company noted. Centrus said the ultimate dollar amount associated with this award—and the potential scale of the expansion—will “depend upon task orders” subsequently issued by the DOE.
UK-based URENCO said its Urenco USA affiliate already “currently has the capacity to meet approximately one-third of the enrichment needs of U.S. utilities and is expanding to meet further demand.” The company noted its facility in Eunice, New Mexico—which began operations in 2010 and remains the only commercial enrichment facility operating in the U.S.—has already begun licensing activities with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to support allowable U-235 enrichment levels to 10% and support industry development and implementation of accident tolerant fuel (ATF). “This is an important stepping stone towards the production of HALEU,” URENCO said on Wednesday.
“Urenco USA’s U.S. workforce has the knowledge and experience to play a leading role in the production of HALEU and other advanced fuels, operating for more than a decade securely under intergovernmental treaties to ensure the peaceful use and safeguarding of nuclear technology,” said John Kirkpatrick, managing director of Urenco USA.
Urenco, notably, has embarked on an effort to expand its enrichment capacity in Eunice. On Oct. 10, it celebrated the installation of its first new centrifuges as part of a project that will provide an an additional 700,000 separative work units per year—a 15% increase. The company says it is on schedule to begin producing enriched uranium from newly installed centrifuges in 2025.
Like Centrus, Orano also received a deconversion contract. The enrichment contract will support Orano’s “significant investment in the design and construction of an American HALEU enrichment facility [that] would use existing modern ultracentrifugation technology to promptly and securely deliver HALEU capacity without the need for additional extensive research and development,” the company told POWER.
“As a successful, global leader for uranium chemistry, enrichment, and delivery, we have been participating from the very beginning in the DOE’s process for developing U.S. HALEU capacity that is reliable, diversified, and commercially viable,” said Jean-Luc Palayer, CEO, Orano USA.
Palayer underscored the importance of the efficient development of a domestic HALEU supply chain. “With the quickly growing demand for clean, steady nuclear energy in our nation, and most recently from top tech companies for energy-hungry AI and data centers, it is essential for the nuclear industry, with the support from DOE, to establish the needed HALEU supply chain now to be ready for powering advanced reactors,” he said.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).