HALEU policy, DOE allocation programs, NRC licensing, uranium import rules and international regulation
The Trump administration's goal of quadrupling U.S. nuclear production by 2050 depends on expanding enrichment, with DOE and private projects racing to add HALEU and LEU capacity by 2029.
The NRC accepted General Matter's license application for a $1.5 billion Paducah enrichment plant in about half the usual time, with a HALEU license amendment planned for next year.
A 2024 law bans Russian uranium imports and its waivers lapse in 2028, putting a hard deadline on the DOE-backed build-out of U.S. enrichment capacity, including Centrus's $1.07 billion HALEU task order.
A 2026 GAO report found China and Russia are the only countries with scalable HALEU production, while the US lacks commercial-scale enrichment capacity; DOE forecasts tight supply through 2030.
In January 2026 the Department of Energy issued $2.7 billion in enrichment task orders, with $900 million each going to Orano Federal Services, General Matter and American Centrifuge Operating, while Urenco USA, Nusano and LIS Technologies received nothing.
Washington has moved from broad HALEU appropriations to targeted enrichment awards, with three $900 million task orders in January 2026 and Russian uranium waivers set to expire at the start of 2028.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement recommending a construction and operation licence for Global Laser Enrichment's Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility, with a final safety evaluation and licence decision expected by end-2026 or early 2027.
DOE says billions are being allocated to rebuild US domestic enrichment for both LEU and HALEU, while the NRC has finalised a rule letting DOE- and DoD-authorised designs reuse prior analysis and test data in a streamlined commercial review.
Secured Transportation Services coordinated the shipment of roughly 1.7 metric tons of HALEU from Japan to the United States — the largest single international uranium shipment in NNSA history — as part of DOE award-winning removal missions.
The U.S. Department of Energy has made conditional commitments to supply HALEU to NASA and Radiant Industries in its third round of allocation, targeting the near-term fuel needs of a federal space agency and a commercial microreactor developer.
Westinghouse is in pre-application talks with the NRC for its LEU+ plant while Framatome has already won approval to fabricate fuel enriched up to 10 percent, setting the regulatory template for higher-enrichment fuel in the US.
NANO Nuclear and subsidiary HALEU Energy Fuel signed a definitive agreement to buy NRC-licensed nuclear fuel processing assets, a deal that would make it owner of one of ten licensed fuel cycle facilities in the US.