The uranium enrichment market has been shaped by large and mostly government-owned companies throughout the history of the commercial nuclear industry. Every one of the existing SWU suppliers in the market today owes its pedigree to a government. However, as we enter a resurgent nuclear energy market, there are signs that the enrichment sector could also be in store for a significant shake-up in the coming years.
Several factors are shaping the enrichment market these days, but none more impactful than the ongoing fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the shift by open market utilities away from SWU/EUP procurement from Russia. The resulting rapid rise in SWU prices and the desire by open market utilities to have more options when it comes to enrichment supply have also triggered interest in sourcing beyond the existing suppliers. Meanwhile, the rise of advanced reactors that will require high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) has created a potential new opening for enrichers well beyond the traditional LEU market. The final major factor affecting the enrichment sector is the increasing role of governments in directly supporting and financing new enrichment supply, especially in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Notably, the Sapporo 5 countries announced last September that they had cumulatively mobilized $5.6 billion focused on investing in new enrichment and conversion capacity. Of this total, the U.S. alone has committed around $3.4 billion.
Given all these major trends, it is perhaps no surprise that potential new enrichers have appeared on the scene. However, the number and variety of companies actively pursuing new enrichment projects is beyond any historical precedent. In fact, in the past year, UxC has already issued two detailed essays on these new enrichment players in our quarterly Enrichment Market Outlook (EMO) reports, which reflects the rapid pace of developments associated with these numerous potential new enrichers.
Of course, there are two well-known companies that have been vying to become full-scale commercial SWU suppliers for quite a while. Both Centrus Energy (formerly USEC) and Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) began their efforts to deploy new enrichment technologies during the last nuclear renaissance in the late 2000s. Following a decade of limited progress, their prospects in the current market are once again looking very good for commercial deployment. In fact, both Centrus and GLE today appear closer than ever to joining the ranks of full-scale enrichers by the early 2030s.
However, the crux of this article is the growing list of other potential new Western enrichers, of which there are now at least six contenders (see table). One that has been making waves as of late is General Matter, the startup California-based company backed by billionaire Peter Thiel. Since being chosen as one of the awardees in both of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) HALEU and LEU Offtake Program RFPs last year, General Matter has burst onto the scene with significant capital raisings and other big moves. Most recently, the company announced that it aims to build an enrichment facility at the shuttered DOE-owned gaseous diffusion plant (GDP) in Paducah, Kentucky. While GLE has been pursuing its own Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF) at a site it acquired next door to the DOE’s GDP, General Matter apparently intends to restore part of the DOE plant (see story on page 17 of the July 28, 2025 issue of the Ux Weekly). While still unconfirmed, all information on General Matter to date indicates that the company is pursuing a gas centrifuge-based enrichment technology to produce both HALEU and LEU. Thanks to its ties to Peter Thiel, General Matter appears to have made strong inroads with the current Trump administration.
The South African company ASP Isotopes, which is now branching out into the UK and U.S., is another new enrichment contender. The company traces its aerodynamic technology back to the 1980s South African nuclear program, but it is now mainly focused on commercializing its Quantum Enrichment (QE) laser-based enrichment process for HALEU production. Notably ASP has signed a supply contract and loan agreement with SAMR developer TerraPower.
Ubaryon was one of the first new enricher entrants as it has been in operation since 2015. The Australian company, a subsidiary of uranium exploration company Global Uranium and Enrichment (GUE), aims to deploy a novel chemical process to separate the 235U isotopes from 238U isotopes directly in natural uranium concentrates (U3O8). Notably, the company recently received a significant boost signing a strategic partnership agreement with Urenco to support development.
Nusano is another newcomer to the scene having announced last month that it aims to use its proprietary plasma enrichment process to produce HALEU. The U.S. company, based in Utah, is already active in medical isotope production and seems confident that its plasma enrichment technology can be applied to uranium isotope separation as well.
Just this month, news emerged that another U.S. enrichment aspirant named Hexium might be entering a strategic partnership with microreactor developer Oklo with possible participation as well from TerraPower and the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL). According to prior reports, Hexium emerged from stealth mode in April having raised $12 million aimed at commercializing the old Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation (AVLIS) laser enrichment technology.
All told, there are now eight different emerging or aspiring new enrichment suppliers in the West. These companies are all in various stages of development in terms of technology demonstration, siting, regulatory/licensing, financing, marketing, and political/government engagement. Considering that there are currently only two incumbent enrichers in the West – Urenco and Orano – the possibility of multiple new players rising to prominence makes the enrichment space perhaps one of the most dynamic and exciting parts of the front end of the fuel cycle at this time.
It is with this dynamism in mind that UxC continuously tracks and updates its analysis of all these enrichment supply developments both in our quarterly EMO reports as well as our annual Conversion & Enrichment Supplier Assessments (CESA) reports. There is no doubt that future editions of these reports will have much more to say about the rapidly evolving uranium enrichment supply situation.
This article was originally published in the July 28, 2025 issue of the Ux Weekly.
Jonathan Hinze is President of UxC, LLC. He has been at UxC since 2006, during which time he has helped to expand the company’s products and consulting work in numerous ways. Mr. Hinze has nearly two decades of direct experience in the nuclear industry, and therefore has an extensive wealth of knowledge on the nuclear fuel cycle and reactor markets. One of his main areas of focus over the years has been nuclear reactor developments and global nuclear power forecasting as well as analyzing the future of the nuclear fuel markets and the reactor supply chain. His areas of expertise include an in-depth knowledge of the international nuclear marketplace, nuclear technologies, government policies, nonproliferation, and the strong interplay between all these forces on a domestic and international level. Mr. Hinze received a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies from Haverford College and a Master of Arts in International Trade and Investment Policy from the George Washington University.