Inside the uranium plant at the center of U.S. plans to expand nuclear power
EunICE, New Mexico – Paul Lorskulsint, when he shot Japan in 2011, he was a shift manager at a brand new uranium enrichment facility at the depths of the American Southwest.
A major tsunami and earthquake Fukushima Daiichi caused a serious accident in the nuclear power plant. New Mexico, thousands of miles away in Eunice, Lorskulsint, the team could witness what happened in the Pacific Ocean to ensure that it could witness.
Lorskulintst knew that the disaster in Japan was a turning point for the nuclear industry. After spent the European Uranium enrichor Urenco to build a facility with the expectation of increasing demand for years, an operation shift was opened in 2010.
During the next decade, public support for nuclear energy has decreased and industry fought to compete with cheap natural gas and renewable energy floods, while a dozen reactor was closed in the USA. The low -enriched uranium demand that feeds nuclear power plants decreased.
Lorskulsint, the chief nuclear officer of the United States, told CNBC, “the price of what we sell was fundamental.” He said. He said that Urenco’s long -term contracts with public services insulated the facility during the decline, but the price decrease took a further expansion plan.
Nuclear Principal Chief Nuclear Manager Paul Lorskulintst talks about the Uenco USA uranium enrichment process.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Outside London, Uenco belongs to the British and Dutch governments and two German services. The New Mexico Facility is the only commercial enrichment facility of the last US in Kentucky, Paducah, Kentucky in 2013, and the owner went bankrupt during a decline after the United States Enrichment Company Fukushima.
Fourteen years later, the situation reversed once again. Uenco USA is competing to expand its enrichment capacity. Nuclear industry is accelerated since it is expected that electricity demand in the US will be caused by the force of artificial intelligence and internal production. Doubts continue whether the US power supplies will increase quickly enough to meet the needs. Increased uranium enrichment will be an important part of the process despite the history of past frustrations.
In addition, the US’s enriched uranium materials are at risk. The US still imported 20% Uranium enriched from Russia In 2024, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, it is a legacy of being shattered between the two countries.
The US will completely prohibit the Russian Uranium imported by 2028 to Moscow’s full -scale invasion of Moscow’s full -scale invasion, and Washington will leave a gap supply deficit when the public services and technology sector has developed the most ambitious plans for decades to create new reactors.
Nuclear power plants such as Palisades in Michigan, Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania and Duane Arnold in Iowa are planning to restart operations years ago. The technology sector invests hundreds of millions of dollars to make advanced reactors online in the 2030s.
“This is a very important moment, the next five to 10 years for the nuclear industry.” He said. “In time, we will have to deliver in the program and continue to maintain this acceleration, which is an important difficulty.”
Employees in Urenco USA receive a supply material cylinder for the enrichment process.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Expansion plans
In deeply divided Washington, nuclear energy support is still one of the few problems that can still collect bilateral support. Minister Donald Trump wants to increase the nuclear energy by 2050, which was a significant increase according to President Joe Biden’s goal until then.
In the last 30 years, the US has built only one new nuclear power plant from scratch and has created doubts about whether such ambitious plans could be realized. However, to expand the nuclear energy in the United States, the big or small effort will pass through Urenco’s New Mexico facility.
The facility is currently capable of supplying about one -third of the US request, which has been invested in 5 billion dollars to the facility. Uenco expands its capacity in New Mexico up to 15% due to its replacement of Russian fuel. This year, he established two new centrifugal helmets for enrichment. However, Lorskulsint said that the expansion of Uenco would not fill the Russian supply gap alone.
“Our competitors will have to expand to make sure that the industry is still supplied as a whole.” He said. He continued: “We are building as quickly as possible to ensure that the industry is not short surrender.”
As the Russian fuel is banned from the US, the Trump administration is forced to start this decade of 10 new major reactors. Alphabet Approximately 2 Gigawatt is making new nuclear investments, Amazon More than 5 connected to Gigawatt and Meta He wants to bring online to 4 Gigawatt.
Uenco US facilities Eunice, New Mexico.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Lorskulsint said he was worried about the supply deficit of the industry, but filling it is not “an insurmountable task”.
Uenco USA is a candidate from the Ministry of Energy to produce a lower enriched uranium, a part of the United States. The contract will allow the New Mexico facility to expand further with the construction of a fourth production building.
Uenco’s competitors are also looking for support from the energy department to create the US enrichment capacity. Orano from France plans to establish a facility in Oak Ridge, and operations start potentially in the 2030s.
Public Central PiceTone has a facility that plans to produce low -enriched uranium in Ohio, but has not yet started commercial operations. Centus is the successor of the United States Enrichment Company, which went bankrupt in 2013.
The US made more than 400% money this year on an increasing request for investors’ enriched uranium demand due to its plans to expand nuclear energy.
Paul Lorskultin talks about the uranium enrichment process next to the Nuclear Manager, Uenco USA, Cullet Cascade.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Supply chain bottlenecks
However, enrichment is only a stage that will be stretched with increasing demand in a long supply chain. The uranium delivered to the US is usually removed in Canada and then converted into an intermediate state called uranium hexafloride, which is the raw material for enrichment.
The raw material rotates the level required for most nuclear power plants, in the centrifugal of UENCO to increase the presence of 5%of uranium-235. The enriched uranium is then sent to fuel manufacturers who produce pellets entering the reactors in energy power plants.
According to the Energy Information Administration, US nuclear power plants are faced with the cumulative supply gap of 184 million pound uranium by 2034. For Uenco, the biggest bottleneck for Uenco is the conversion of uranium into raw materials for enrichment. In the Western world, there are only three facilities in Canada, France and Illinois that transform uranium into raw materials.
“Every part of the supply chain will have to expand, not just about enrichment.” He said. “We need everything more, but now the transformation is a bottleneck.”
Execution may not be the biggest difficulty at the end of the nuclear supply chain. It may prove that the aging US electricity network may be a real restriction on building new nuclear construction, as it lasts to complete the upgrades. He said he wouldn’t stop expansion while he could slow down Uenco.
“We came here when the market demands it,” Lorskulsint said, “The market demanded it.”
