Urenco USA has completed its first commercial cylinder of low-enriched uranium plus at its New Mexico plant, adding a higher-assay fuel option to a U.S. enrichment business planning a major capacity expansion.
The company said Nov. 2 that the cylinder was its first commercial LEU+ product and called the milestone the first commercial LEU+ production in the Western world. It did not disclose the cylinder’s enrichment level, mass, customer or delivery date.
Urenco classifies LEU+ as uranium containing 5%-10% uranium-235 (U-235). Its conventional low-enriched uranium range is 3%-5%, while high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) covers 10%-20%. The company says LEU+ could extend operating cycles at existing light-water reactors, reduce refueling frequency, serve some advanced reactor designs and provide feedstock for HALEU production. It has not quantified potential savings.
The milestone follows an earlier production run. Urenco USA completed a run at 8.5% U-235 on Dec. 11, 2025, and announced it on Dec. 18, saying at the time that commercial-quantity production was planned for mid-2026.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a license amendment on Dec. 11, 2024, raising Urenco USA’s enrichment limit from 5.5 weight percent U-235 to below 10%. Separately, an NRC exemption issued May 29, 2026, permits domestic transport during 2026 and 2027 of about 40 to 50 30B cylinders containing uranium hexafluoride enriched above 5% but below 10% U-235, for one customer. The notice does not name the customer or establish that the new cylinder is covered.
In its June 2026 notice, the NRC said the standard certificate for the existing DN30 transport package generally limits enrichment to 5%. The agency said use of higher-assay 30B-10 cylinders depended on manufacturing, adding their design to the ANSI N14.1 standard and implementation at facilities.
Urenco says the Eunice site has annual capacity of 4.3 million separative work units (SWU). The company plans to add 2.1 million SWU, with construction of a new plant targeted to begin in 2029. Initial cascade production is planned for 2032, followed by further installations through 2036; Urenco projects U.S. capacity will exceed 7 million SWU within a decade.
