The uranium enrichment provider Urenco is expanding its Lea County facility by 15%. The company announced last month that it is expanding “…its enrichment capacity at its US site in New Mexico, known as UUSA.”
UUSA, which has been operating near Eunice since 2010, currently employs 230 individuals and plays “a key role in the nuclear fuel supply chain, enabling the generation of low-carbon electricity for customers worldwide,” states the Urenco website. These employees come from all walks of life. A UUSA Operations Support Specialist said on the company’s Facebook page, “Even though I was not a part of the nuclear community, I had transferable skills. Everyone has skills that can be honed in a new direction. I’m still using the skills I developed as a teacher to train others in the Operations organization.”
According to a UUSA spokesperson, the expansion project will bring approximately 100 new jobs over the next few years to Lea County.
Eunice Plant Supplies One-Third of Enriched Uranium in US Annually
Specifically, the uranium that is enriched by UUSA is used to place fuel rods in nuclear power plants to generate electricity. Supplying one-third of the annual demand for enriched uranium in the United States, “our focus is on providing safe, cost effective and reliable uranium enrichment services for power generation within a framework of high environmental, social responsibility and corporate governance standards.”
The Eunice plant, operated by Louisiana Energy Services, LLC, is the “only operating commercial uranium enrichment facility in North America,” states an article published at World-Nuclear-News.org.
According to World Nuclear News, the expansion project, which has already started, will go online in 2025 with final completion in 2027. Current UUSA employees, contractors and staff from Enrichment Technology Corporation, UUSA’s centrifuge supplier, are being used to carry out the project.
Capacity Increase
The expansion of the Eunice plant will provide by adding “multiple new centrifuge cascades” to the existing operation “…an additional capacity of around 700 tonnes [tons] of separative work units (SWU) per year…,” states Urenco. Currently, the facility provides 4600 tons of SWU per year.
Comments from CEO Schucht
About the expansion Urenco CEO Boris Schucht said, “Urenco is committed to supporting customers with their energy security and carbon reduction needs and this investment [at the Eunice plant] is a further sign of the exciting momentum behind nuclear, a reliable and low-carbon source that can maintain baseload energy and help us achieve net zero.”
Schucht continued, “We have the licenses, designs, technology and proven capability to expand our capacity, and we are already seeing an increase in demand for our services from existing customers and new ones.”
The Desire for Non-Russian Fuel
Pivotal to the company’s decision to expand the Eunice facility is the commitments the company has already received from US clients for non-Russian fuel. The expansion will expand Urenco’s “capacity program” and “the nuclear fuel supply chain both in the US and globally”, states Urenco.
Urenco headquarters are near London in the United Kingdom (UK). In addition to the Eunice enrichment facility, Urenco has plants in Capenhurst in the UK, in Gronau in Germany and in Almelo in the Netherlands.
