France’s Orano aims to enrich US uranium in early 2030s, CEO says By Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) – French nuclear fuel specialist Orano could begin enriching uranium at a new plant in the United States in the early 2030s, an executive said on Friday, boosting the company’s global market share as the U.S. moves away of the supply of Russia.

The state-owned company announced Wednesday it will build a new plant in Tennessee, months after President Joe Biden’s administration signed legislation to end U.S. reliance on Russia’s Rosatom.

Orano is one of the few companies with fuel enrichment capabilities, and demand is growing as new markets look to nuclear power for cleaner energy.

Orano is already planning a 1.7 billion euro ($1.9 billion) expansion of its enrichment plant in southern France, increasing capacity by more than 30% or 2.5 million separate work units (SWUs), partly to meet the demand of American customers.

A SWU is a measure of the uranium enrichment process, proportional to the input and mass produced.

Building a facility on U.S. soil will allow the company to tap into up to $2.7 billion in U.S. funding for domestic uranium projects, said Francois Lurin, head of the company’s chemical enrichment business.

The company is targeting several million SWUs at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., plant, Lurin said, but will adjust to customer needs and required enrichment rates.

The plant could also be equipped to produce HALEU fuels that are enriched to higher levels than today’s commercial nuclear fuel for the next generation of large and small nuclear reactors, he added.

Investment decisions on Oak Ridge should begin next year, Lurin added, once the company receives long-term commitments from customers.

Orano must also obtain a license from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), along with federal support.

“If everything goes according to plan, if we start work, if we get financial support from the US government and firm orders from customers, and if exchanges with NRC go well, we can imagine production in the early 2030s,” he said. .

(1 USD = 0.9010 euros)