watch now12:4512:45Why U.S.
companies are reopening uranium minesEUNICE, NEW MEXICO — Paul Lorskulsint was a shift manager at a brand new uranium enrichment facility deep in the American Southwest when catastrophe struck Japan in 2011.A massive tsunami and earthquake had caused a severe accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nu Power Plant.
Thousands of miles away in Eunice, New Mexico, Lorskulsint turned on the television to make sure his team could witness what was happening across the Pacific Ocean.Lorskulsint knew the disaster in Japan was a watershed moment for the nu industry.
The plant where he was leading an operations shift had just opened in 2010, after the European uranium enricher Urenco had spent years building the facility in anticipation of growing demand.Over the ensuing decade, public support for nu power diminshed and a dozen reactors closed in the U.S.
as the industry struggled to compete against a flood of cheap natural gas and renewable energy.
Demand for the low enriched uranium that fuels nu plants dwindled."The price of what we sold basically went through the floor," Lorskulsint, who is now the chief nu officer at Urenco USA, told CNBC.
Urenco's long-term contracts with utilities insulated the facility during the downturn, he said, but the price drop put further expansion plans on hold.Paul Lorskulsint, Chief Nu Officer, Urenco USA talks the uranium enrichment cess.
Adam Jeffery | CNBCHeadquartered outside London, Urenco is joinly owned by the British and Dutch goverments and two German utilities.
Its New Mexico facility is the only commercial enrichment facility left in the U.S.
The last U.S.-owned commercial facility in Paducah, Kentucky, closed in 2013 and its owner the United States Enrichment Corporation went bankrupt during the downturn after Fukushima.Fourteen years later, the situation has reversed once again.
Urenco USA is racing to expand its enrichment capacity. The nu industry is gaining momentum as electricity demand in the U.S.
is jected to surge from artificial intelligence and the push to expand domestic manufacturing. Doubts persist whether U.S. power supplies will ramp up quick enough to meet the needs.
Increasing uranium enrichment will be a key part of the cess, despite the history of past disappointments. Also, U.S. enriched uranium supplies are at risk. The U.S.
still imported 20% of its enriched uranium from Russia in 2024, a legacy of the now shattered hope for friendship between the two countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War.The U.S.
will completely ban the import Russian uranium by 2028 in repsonse to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leaving a gapping supply deficit just when Washington, the utilities and the sector are the most ambitious plans in decades to build new reactors.Nu plants Palisades in Michigan, Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania and Duane Arnold in Iowa are planning to restart operations this decade after closing years ago.
The sector is hundreds of millions of dollars to bring advanced reactors online in the 2030s to help power their computer warehouses that train and run AI applications."It is a pivotal moment, the next five to 10 years for the nu industry," Lorskulsint said.
"We're going to have to have to der on time, on schedule and continue to maintain that momentum, which is a significant challenge."Employees at Urenco USA receive a cylinder of material for enrichment cess.Adam Jeffery | CNBCExpansion plansIn deeply divided Washington, support for nu power is one of the few issues that can still muster some bipartisan support.
President Donald Trump wants to quadruple nu power by 2050, a significant increase over President Joe Biden's previous goal to triple it by that date.The U.S.
has only built one new nu plant from scratch in the past 30 years, raising doubts whether such ambitious plans can be realized. But any effort big or small to expand nu power in the U.S.
will run through Urenco's facility in New Mexico.The plant currently has capacity to supply a third of U.S. demand with $5 billion invested in the facility to date.
Urenco is expanding its capacity in New Mexico by 15% through 2027 as utilties replace Russian fuel. It has installed two new centrifuge cascades for enrichment this year.
But Urenco's expansion alone won't fill the Russian supply gap, Lorskulsint said."Our competitors will have to expand in order to make sure that as a whole the industry is still supplied," he said.
"We're building quickly as we can to make sure that the the industry is not short handed."As Russian fuel is banned from the U.S., the Trump administration is pushing for 10 new large reactors to start construction this decade.
Alphabet is in 2 gigawatts of new nu, Amazon has committed to more than 5 gigawatts, and Meta wants to bring up to 4 gigawatts online.Urenco USA Facilities in Eunice, New Mexico.Adam Jeffery | CNBCThe industry is worried the supply gap, Lorskulsint said, but filling it "is not an insurmountable task."Urenco USA is a candidate to receive a contract from the Department of Energy to duce more low-enriched uranium, part of U.S.
efforts to standup a domestic nu supply chain.
The contract would allow the New Mexico facility to expand further with the construction of a fourth duction building.Urenco's competitors are also seeking support from the Energy Department to build out U.S.
enrichment capacity.
France's Orano is planning to build a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennesse, with operations potentially starting in the 2030s.Publicly traded Centrus has a facility in Piketon, Ohio, where it plans to duce low-enriched uranium, but it hasn't yet started commercial operations.
Centrus is the successor company to the United States Enrichment Corporation that went bankrupt in 2013.Centrus stock has gained more than 400% this year as investors bet on a growing demand for enriched uranium due to U.S.
plans to expand nu power.Paul Lorskulsint, Chief Nu Officer, Urenco USA talks the uranium enrichment cess next to centrifuge cascade.Adam Jeffery | CNBCSupply chain bottlenecksBut enrichment is just one stage in a long supply chain that will be stretched by growing demand.
Uranium dered to the U.S is often mined in Canada and it is then converted into intermediate state called uranium hexafluoride that is the stock for enrichment.The stock is spun in Urenco's centrifuges to increase the presence of the isotope Uranium-235 to 5%, the level needed for most nu plants.
The enriched uranium is then shipped to fuel fabricators that manufacture the pellets that go into reactors in power plants.U.S.
nu plants are facing cumulative supply gap of 184 million pounds of uranium through 2034, according to the Energy Information Administration.The biggest bottleneck right now for Urenco is the conversion of uranium into the stock for enrichment, Lorskulsint said.
There are only three facilities in the Western world located in Canada, France and Illinois that convert uranium into stock."Every portion of the supply chain is going to have to expand, it's not just enrichment," Lorskulsint said.
"We need more of everything but conversion right now is the bottleneck."The nu supply chain may not be the biggest challenge in the end, the executive said. The ageing U.S.
electric grid could ve to be the real constraint on building new nu due how long it takes to complete upgrades, he said.
While this could slow Urenco down, it won't stop the expansion, he said."We came here when the market demanded it," Lorskulsint said of Urenco's investment in the U.S.
"We were here when the market didn't demand it. And we are now expanding to make sure that we can still support as much as the market needs from us."