Energy Department Commits $2.7 Billion to Rebuild U.S. Uranium Enrichment and HALEU Supply

On Jan. 5, the U.S. Department of Energy committed $2.7 billion over the next decade to rebuild a domestic uranium enrichment industry that officials say is essential to keeping nuclear plants running without Russian fuel and to powering a new generation of reactors.

The long-term “task order” contracts, awarded to three primary companies and one smaller technology project, are designed to expand U.S. production of both conventional low-enriched uranium, or LEU, and high-assay low-enriched uranium, known as HALEU. LEU fuels the existing fleet of commercial nuclear plants; HALEU is the advanced fuel many next-generation reactor designs say they will need.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright called the funding a “historic investment” that will “restore 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.”

A push to end reliance on Russian fuel

The move is the most concrete step yet in a multi-year push by Washington to end U.S. reliance on Russian nuclear fuel. Until recently, Russia supplied roughly 27% of the enriched uranium used by U.S. utilities, according to federal data and industry estimates.

In May 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act, which bars most imports of Russian uranium and low-enriched uranium starting Aug. 11, 2024, with limited and declining waivers allowed through Jan. 1, 2028. The law also unlocked about $2.72 billion in previously appropriated funds intended to jump-start domestic uranium conversion and enrichment.

The Jan. 5 contracts represent the formal allocation of that money, an approach the administration has framed around energy security and domestic industrial jobs.

Who won the contracts

Under the Department of Energy awards, three companies will each be eligible for up to $900 million over 10 years, paid out as they hit construction and production milestones. A smaller award of $28 million will fund research into laser-based enrichment.

Centrus: HALEU and LEU expansion in Ohio

American Centrifuge Operating LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Centrus Energy Corp., will receive one of the $900 million packages to build out commercial-scale HALEU production at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

Centrus has already produced HALEU in demonstration quantities under earlier Energy Department contracts. The company says it has delivered more than 900 kilograms of HALEU in uranium hexafluoride form to the department, making it the only licensed commercial HALEU producer in the United States so far.

Centrus said the award would underpin a “multi-billion-dollar expansion” of the Piketon plant, supporting about 1,000 construction jobs and 300 new operating jobs, while preserving roughly 150 existing positions. The project would allow the facility to produce both HALEU for advanced reactors and standard LEU for today’s light-water plants.

General Matter: a second HALEU supplier

A second $900 million contract goes to General Matter LLC, based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, also tasked with providing HALEU enrichment. The company was among firms pre-qualified by the department in 2024 to compete for HALEU contracts, but it has disclosed few public details.

By splitting HALEU work between Centrus and General Matter, the Energy Department is signaling it does not want to rely on a single domestic supplier for a fuel expected to be central to future reactor projects.

Orano: Project IKE in Tennessee

The third major award—also up to $900 million—goes to Orano Federal Services LLC, the U.S. arm of French nuclear company Orano SA. The funding will support Project IKE, a proposed $5 billion gas-centrifuge enrichment plant in Oak Ridge that Orano says will produce LEU and LEU+ (uranium enriched up to 10% uranium-235), with a pathway to future HALEU production.

Orano said the contract is a “key milestone” and will help replace Russian low-enriched uranium when the U.S. import ban is fully in force.

Global Laser Enrichment: a smaller bet on new technology

Separately, Global Laser Enrichment LLC will receive $28 million to advance its laser-based enrichment technology in Wilmington, North Carolina. The company—majority-owned by Australia’s Silex Systems Ltd. and Canada’s Cameco Corp.—had sought a larger production contract. Instead, the department opted to prioritize centrifuge technology for near-term capacity while keeping laser enrichment as a longer-term option.

Milestones, timelines, and fuel-supply risks

Officials say the contracts are structured as performance-based task orders under broader agreements signed in 2024 with multiple enrichment companies. Payments will be tied to milestones such as construction progress, licensing approvals, and demonstrated production.

The timing is tight. The United States currently has one operating commercial uranium enrichment plant, run by Urenco USA in Eunice, New Mexico, which is foreign-owned and supplies roughly a third of U.S. market needs. As Russian imports phase out under the 2024 law, domestic and allied capacity will need to grow quickly to avoid a fuel shortfall for the nation’s 94 operating commercial reactors.

Those reactors generate about 20% of U.S. electricity and roughly half of its carbon-free power, according to the Energy Department—making fuel continuity a grid-reliability and climate issue as well as an industrial one.

Why HALEU matters for advanced reactors

HALEU, enriched between 5% and just under 20% uranium-235, is not used in today’s power reactors, which typically run on fuel enriched to 3% to 5%. But many proposed advanced and small modular reactors—by companies including TerraPower, X-energy, Oklo, and others—are designed around HALEU to enable smaller cores, longer fuel cycles, and higher-temperature operation.

The Energy Department estimates U.S. HALEU demand could reach about 50 metric tons per year by 2035 if advanced reactor deployment proceeds as planned. For now, Russia is the only country with large-scale commercial HALEU production.

Industry executives have described a “chicken-and-egg” problem: reactor developers cannot easily secure financing without a credible fuel supply, while fuel suppliers are reluctant to invest billions without firm reactor orders. Federal officials say the long-term contracts are intended to break that deadlock.

Nonproliferation and safeguards concerns

The build-out is also drawing attention from nonproliferation experts. Although HALEU is classified as low-enriched uranium because it stays below the 20% threshold used in international safeguards, its higher concentration of fissile material makes it more sensitive than conventional reactor fuel.

A declassified 1977 State Department cable, made public in recent years, shows U.S. officials recommending that the International Atomic Energy Agency treat uranium enriched above 10% as material “of direct utility in an explosive device,” a stricter view than current practice.

Analysts say large commercial stocks of 10% to 20% enriched uranium will require robust security and safeguards to prevent diversion or misuse. Regulators and the Energy Department say new facilities will have to comply with stringent Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing and physical protection requirements, and the department has emphasized what it calls a strict milestone approach.

A high-stakes industrial bet

Beyond security concerns, the expansion will test whether large-scale nuclear industrial policy can deliver on ambitious timelines. Uranium prices have risen sharply in recent years, with spot prices swinging from around $100 per pound in early 2024 to the low $80s at the end of 2025, as utilities and investors bet on a long-term nuclear role in an increasingly power-hungry, electrified economy.

For communities in Ohio and Tennessee, the contracts are already being touted as evidence that nuclear can again support long-term industrial jobs. Piketon—long associated with decommissioning and cleanup at the old Portsmouth site—is being recast as a prospective hub for advanced-reactor fuel. Oak Ridge, where the Manhattan Project helped build the first atomic weapons, is positioning itself as a center for modern enrichment and reactor development.

Nationally, the awards underscore a rare area of continuity between administrations. The Russian uranium ban and the funding it released were enacted under Biden, while the current Energy Department is implementing the contracts under President Donald Trump, who has made “energy security” and “energy dominance” central themes.

Whether the centrifuges slated for Ohio and Tennessee can scale up in time to replace Russian supplies and meet emerging HALEU demand will not be clear for several years. The decisive tests will come as Russian import waivers expire by 2028 and as advanced reactor projects in the 2030s begin to seek commercial fuel.

For now, the United States has placed a large, decade-long bet that it can rebuild a domestic enrichment industry fast enough to keep existing reactors powered, support new ones, and reshape the global map of nuclear fuel—while managing the added risks that come with stockpiling more potent nuclear material.