Eunice, New Mexico – Paul Rothrusluslit was the shift manager for a brand new uranium enrichment facility deep in the southwestern United States when the catastrophe struck Japan in 2011.
The massive tsunami and earthquake caused a serious accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Thousands of miles away in Eunice, New Mexico, Lorskilsint turned on the TV so that his team could see what was going on in the Pacific Ocean.
Lorskulsint knew that Japan’s disaster was a turning point for the nuclear industry. After many years of European urancia Urenko constructing the facility in anticipation of growing demand, the factory where he was leading the operational shift had just opened in 2010.
For the next decade, public support for nuclear power was shut down in the US and dozens of reactors were shut down as the industry struggled to compete with floods of cheap natural gas and renewable energy. Demand for low-enriched uranium has declined in nuclear power plants.
“The prices of what we sold essentially went through the floor,” Lorskyrsint, now Chief Nuclear Officer at Urenko USA, told CNBC. The long-term contracts between Urenco and utility quarantined facilities during the recession, but the price decline put further expansion plans on hold.
Paul Lorskalcinto, Urenko USA’s Chief Nuclear Officer, talks about the uranium enrichment process.
Adam Jeffrey | CNBC
Headquartered in the outskirts of London, Urenko combines British and Dutch governance with two German utilities. The New Mexico facility was the only commercially-enhanced facility left in the US, the last US-owned commercial facility in Padoca, Kentucky, which closed in 2013, and its owner went bankrupt during the economic downturn after Fukushima.
14 years later, things turned back once again. Urenco USA is competing to expand its enrichment capacity. The nuclear industry is gaining momentum as U.S. electricity demand is projected to surge from the push to expand artificial intelligence and domestic manufacturing. Questions have arisen as to whether US power supplies will be faster enough to meet their needs. Despite a history of disappointment in the past, increasing uranium enrichment is an important part of the process.
Additionally, the US supply of enriched uranium is at risk. The US still imported 20% of the enriched uranium from Russia in 2024. This is a now shattered legacy of hope for friendship between the two countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
The US will ban imported Russian uranium completely invasions of Moscow by 2028.
Nuclear power plants such as Palisade in Michigan, Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania, and Duane Arnold in Iowa are set to resume operations over the last decade after closing several years. The technology sector has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2030s to provide advanced nuclear reactors online, helping to power computer warehouses that train and operate AI applications.
“It’s a pivotal moment and the next five to ten years for the nuclear industry,” Roskullsint said. “We’ll have to deliver on time and keep that momentum going. This is an important issue.”
Urenco USA employees receive a cylinder of feed material for the concentration process.
Adam Jeffrey | CNBC
Expansion plan
In Washington’s deep division, nuclear aid is one of the few issues that still bring together some bipartisan support. President Donald Trump hopes to quadruple nuclear power generation by 2050. This significantly increases President Joe Biden’s previous goal of tripling it by that day.
The US has been building one new nuclear power plant from scratch in the last 30 years, raising questions about whether such an ambitious plan could be realized. However, efforts large and small to expand US nuclear power will be carried out through a facility in Urenco, New Mexico.
The plant currently has the capacity to supply about a third of US demand, with $5 billion invested in the facility so far. Urenco is expanding New Mexico’s capabilities by 15% until 2027 as Utilties replaces Russian fuel. This year, I installed two new centrifugation cascades for concentration. However, the expansion of Urenko alone will not fill the supply gap in Russia, Roskursint said.
“Our competitors need to expand to make sure the entire industry is still in supply,” he said. “We’re building as quickly as possible to make sure the industry isn’t getting shorter.”
With Russian fuel being banned from the US, the Trump administration is pushing for 10 new, large-scale nuclear reactors to begin construction over the past decade. alphabet We are investing in a new nuke of about 2 gigawatts, Amazon Committed to over 5 gigawatts Meta I want to bring up to 4 gigawatts online.
Urenco USA facility located in Eunice, New Mexico.
Adam Jeffrey | CNBC
The industry is worried about the supply gap, Roscruslint said, but filling it “is not an insurmountable job.”
Urenco USA is a candidate to receive a contract from the Department of Energy to produce lower enriched uranium, part of our efforts to stand up to the domestic nuclear supply chain. The agreement will allow the New Mexico facility to be further expanded with the construction of the fourth production building.
Urenco’s competitors are also seeking support from the energy sector to build US enrichment capabilities. Orano, France, plans to build a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and could begin in the 2030s.
It’s published center The facility is located in Piketone, Ohio, where it plans to produce low-enriched uranium, but has not yet launched a commercial business. Centrus is the successor to the US Richment Corporation, which went bankrupt in 2013.
Centrus stocks have won more than 400% this year as investors bet on growing demand for rich uranium due to US plans to expand nuclear power.
Paul Lorskalcint, Urenko USA’s chief nuclear power director, talks about the uranium enrichment process next to the centrifugal cascade.
Adam Jeffrey | CNBC
Supply Chain Bottleneck
However, enrichment is just one stage in a long supply chain that is stretched by increasing demand. Uranium supplied to the US is often mined in Canada and then converted into an intermediate state called uranium hexafluoride, a raw material for enrichment.
The raw material is spun in a urenko centrifuge, increasing the presence of isotopic uranium 235, a level required for most nuclear plants. The enriched uranium is then shipped to the fuel manufacturers who produce the pellets that enter the plant’s reactors.
According to the Energy Information Agency, US nuclear power plants face a cumulative supply gap of 184 million pounds of uranium until 2034. The biggest bottleneck in Urenko today is the conversion of uranium into raw materials for enrichment. In the Western world, in Canada, France and Illinois, there are only three facilities that convert uranium into raw materials.
“Every part of the supply chain needs to be expanded. It’s not just about enrichment,” Lorskulsint said. “We need everything more, but for now, conversion is a bottleneck.”
The nuclear supply chain may not be the biggest challenge in the end, executives said. He said that the aging US electric grid could prove to be a real constraint on building new nuclear power, as it takes time to complete the upgrade. This could slow Urenko down, but he said the expansion would not stop.
“We came here when the market demanded it,” Rorskursint said of Urenko’s investment in the US.
