‘No time to lose’, nuclear conference told

The nuclear fuel supply chain requires both “visibility and predictability” if it is to rapidly expand to support future energy demand, a conference was told.

A Nuclear Fuel Supply panel at the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) 2025 conference also heard there was “no time to lose” because the ambition to triple nuclear capacity by 2050 meant the United States alone will require around 45 million SWU by that date.    

Urenco took part in the panel alongside industry partners Orano and Cameco in Ottawa on April 16.

Chief Commercial Officer for Urenco, Laurent Odeh, said long-term policy on nuclear energy from governments, which avoided “flip flopping” between election cycles, and commitments in the form of long-term contracts from customers, were vital to making significant expansions in the enrichment space.

Laurent added that Urenco welcomed fair competition in the fuel supply chain, and was monitoring the existing sanctions on Russian Uranium which had brought clarity to the market, encouraging new western investments.

Panellists agreed, however, that if sanctions were dispensed with “that would be a bad day” for the western fuel supply chain.  

Urenco is strengthening its existing LEU capacity by 1.8 million SWU in total across its four sites. This includes a 15% expansion at its US site in Eunice, New Mexico, and further projects in Almelo, Netherlands and Gronau, Germany

Urenco was a Silver sponsor for the conference and engaged with numerous Canadian nuclear stakeholders during the week, including customers, government officials, ministers, nuclear associations and waste-management bodies.

Traditionally, Canada’s larger-scale reactors, known as CANDU reactors, have been running on natural uranium fuel.  

However, with the emergence of small modular reactor (SMR) technologies, the requirement for enriched uranium, such as LEU and HALEU, has materialised, a development which opens a new market for Urenco and other enrichment companies. In fact, Urenco signed its first Canadian customer in late 2023, when it was announced as one of the uranium enrichment providers for Ontario Power Generation’s SMR project in Darlington, Ontario.

Urenco is building an advanced fuels facility in the UK to produce HALEU by the early 2030s, and is exploring the possibility of doing the same in the US. 

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