The United States is allocating billions of dollars to rebuild domestic uranium enrichment capability for both conventional low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), according to Ted Garrish, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the US Department of Energy. Garrish described HALEU as uranium enriched to between 5 and 20 percent.
Reading the signals from Washington
Garrish called Westinghouse's nearly $1 billion investment in South Carolina "another step towards achieving these objectives," tying private fuel-fabrication spending directly to the federal goal of restoring a domestic supply chain that runs from uranium supply and enrichment through fuel component manufacturing and finished fuel assemblies.
HALEU is not LEU+
A recurring point of confusion in coverage of the US fuel build-out is the distinction between HALEU and LEU+. They are not the same type of fuel. HALEU has a higher enrichment level — 5 to 20 percent uranium-235 — and is being developed, among other purposes, for certain advanced reactor designs. LEU+, at 5 to 8 percent enrichment, is intended to expand fuel options for existing light water reactors. Both approaches require appropriate infrastructure and safety controls, but they serve different reactor fleets and different regulatory pathways.
Energy security framing
For the United States, expanding domestic fuel production is part of its energy security policy: the greater the proportion of the supply chain controlled by domestic industry, the less vulnerable the sector becomes to international trade disruptions. Nuclear power development requires an entire industrial infrastructure, from uranium supplies and enrichment to the manufacture of fuel components and preparation of finished fuel assemblies — which is why federal money is being directed at multiple links in the chain rather than enrichment alone.
Streamlined review for DOE- and DoD-authorised designs
The regulatory side is moving in parallel. The American Nuclear Society reported on 22 October 2026 that the NRC finalised a rule allowing applicants whose designs were already authorised by DOE or the Department of Defense to rely on that analysis and test data in a streamlined commercial review, with target review times of about 18 months for first-of-a-kind applications and 12 months for later units.
The practical effect is that data generated under DOE authority at Idaho could shorten the path from military prototype to civilian sales — a meaningful change for developers whose reactors depend on HALEU fuel and whose commercial timelines hinge on licensing throughput.
This article was assisted by AI analysis. Please refer to the original source for official information.