Kenneth Fletcher
RW Monitor
4/10/2014
Setting up the URENCO USA uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico for further expansion, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month released a “finding of no significant impact” and its environmental assessment in a request to increase capacity at the facility. The LES facility’s third phase of expansion is well underway, with 52 cascades currently online, and URENCO USA has a goal to increase to a capacity of 5.7 million separative work units by 2022. The NRC license amendment would allow that to be further expanded to 10 million SWU if market conditions improve in the future. It also allows for a modified enrichment process, in which the plant could re-enrich its own uranium tails. The plant last year completed the second phase of its expansion, reaching a capacity of 3.7 million SWU, and has slowed down the third phase due to the current depressed market conditions.
