Urenco USA produces its first LEU+, the West's first commercial 5-10% enriched uranium
Victoria Shinder1 min readUrenco USA has produced its first cylinder of LEU+ at its National Enrichment Facility in New Mexico. The company says it is also the first commercial production of the material in the Western world. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorised the plant in September 2025 to enrich uranium up to 10% U-235, and all of its gas centrifuge cascades are licensed to produce LEU+.
Most commercial reactors run on low-enriched uranium with 3-5% U-235. LEU+ contains 5-10%. Fuel made with it can let existing light-water reactors run longer cycles, which means fewer refuelling outages and lower operating and maintenance costs. Some advanced reactor designs are also planned to use LEU+, while others need high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) at 10-20%, for which LEU+ can serve as feedstock.
"A tremendous amount of work has gone into preparing our plant and our staff to reach this achievement," said Urenco USA managing director Jody Blackshear.
The company is installing 700,000 separative work units (SWU) of new centrifuge capacity at the New Mexico site, part of a plan to lift its US enrichment capacity to more than 7 million SWU over the next decade. It has also announced a new 2.1 million SWU plant at the site, with construction from 2029, first cascades in 2032 and more through 2036, which will also be able to produce LEU+.
What it means
LEU+ is the step between today's fuel and the HALEU many new reactors need, and until now no Western plant was selling it. A domestic commercial source makes higher-burnup fuel for existing US reactors a procurement question rather than a research one.