US awards $2.7 billion worth of orders to boost uranium enrichment

The U.S. Energy Department announced on Monday it was awarding orders totaling $2.7 billion to three companies to boost domestic uranium enrichment over the next 10 years in a broader effort to reduce U.S. dependence on Russian supply.

American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter and Orano Federal Services secured the orders, the department said in a statement.

The contracts would require the companies to meet specific milestones to provide enrichment services for low-enriched uranium and high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, for existing nuclear power plants and new, smaller modular reactors.

"Today’s awards show that this Administration is committed to restoring a secure domestic nuclear fuel supply chain capable of producing the nuclear fuels needed to power the reactors of today and the advanced reactors of tomorrow," Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said.

Russia is currently the only country that makes HALEU - uranium enriched to between 5% and 20%, which is said to make new high-tech reactors more efficient - in commercial volumes. Funds to make the fuel domestically in the United States were included in a law to ban uranium shipments from Russia fully by 2028.

The DOE awarded American Centrifuge Operating, a subsidiary of Centrus Energy, and General Matter, backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, with $900 million each to develop domestic HALEU enrichment capacity. It awarded Orano Federal Services with $900 million to expand domestic low-enrichment uranium production.

The Energy Department separately awarded an additional $28 million to Global Laser Enrichment, part-owned by Canadian uranium company Cameco, to further its work to build next-generation uranium enrichment technology for the nuclear fuel cycle.

Global Laser Enrichment had sought a $900 million award.

HALEU's critics say it is a weapons risk if it gets into the wrong hands and recommend limiting enrichment to between 10% and 12% for safety. Uranium fuel used in today's reactors is enriched to about 5%.

-Valerie Volcovici and Costas Pitas/Reuters