Urenco USA completed its first commercial cylinder of LEU+ at its New Mexico plant, the company announced Nov. 2, 2026. Urenco called it the first commercial LEU+ production in the Western world. The company did not disclose the cylinder’s enrichment level, mass, customer, or delivery date, leaving the market to infer how close the product is to the 10% threshold that separates LEU+ from HALEU.

What LEU+ is, and is not

Urenco classifies LEU+ as uranium containing 5% to 10% U-235. Conventional LEU is 3% to 5%, and HALEU is 10% to 20%. Urenco says LEU+ could serve some advanced reactor designs and provide feedstock for HALEU production. That makes LEU+ a bridge product: it is not HALEU, but it can support higher-assay fuel chains and possibly reduce the number of enrichment steps needed for some HALEU pathways.

Urenco says LEU+ could serve some advanced reactor designs and provide feedstock for HALEU production.

The regulatory path

The NRC approved a license amendment on Dec. 11, 2024, raising Urenco USA’s enrichment limit from 5.5 weight percent U-235 to below 10%. Urenco USA had already completed a production run at 8.5% U-235 on Dec. 11, 2025, and announced it on Dec. 18, 2025, saying commercial-quantity production was planned for mid-2026. The first commercial cylinder announced in November 2026 is the follow-through on that plan.

Transport is a separate hurdle. An NRC exemption issued May 29, 2026, permits domestic transport during 2026 and 2027 of about 40 to 50 30B cylinders containing uranium hexafluoride enriched above 5% but below 10% U-235 for one customer. The notice did not name the customer or establish that the new cylinder is covered.

Capacity behind the cylinder

Urenco says its Eunice, New Mexico site has annual capacity of 4.3 million SWU. It plans to add 2.1 million SWU, with construction of a new plant targeted to begin in 2029; initial cascade production is planned for 2032, followed by further installations through 2036. Urenco projects U.S. capacity will exceed 7 million SWU within a decade. For HALEU watchers, the LEU+ cylinder is less a HALEU milestone than evidence that Western enrichment is moving above 5%.

This article was assisted by AI analysis. Please refer to the original source for official information.