# Washington wires $2.7bn into enrichment as the West races to de-Russify nuclear fuel
> DOE task orders to Centrus, General Matter and Orano, plus Urenco's New Mexico expansion, aim to replace Russian LEU before the 2028 waiver cliff

**Meta:** type: story · date: 2026-06-24 · heads: اللعبة الطويلة, أموال من · 11 takes · 3 lenses · 4 regions

## Summary

DOE awarded $2.7bn in [Enrichment](/ar/entity/enrichment) task orders, $900m each to General Matter, American
Centrifuge Operating ([Centrus](/ar/entity/centrus)) and Orano Federal Services, plus $28m to Global Laser
Enrichment, to rebuild US [Uranium](/ar/entity/uranium) enrichment for both standard LEU and [advanced-reactor](/ar/entity/smr)
HALEU. [Urenco USA](/ar/entity/urenco) completed phase one of its Eunice, New Mexico expansion and will add
2.1m SWU (cascades 2032-2036); Centrus is converting its Ohio plant to commercial scale with Fluor.
The push races the [Russian](/ar/entity/russia)-LEU import ban: waivers run only to 1 January 2028, and DOE
estimates ~three years of utility inventory. Russia imposed a tit-for-tat export ban. [Urenco](/ar/entity/urenco)
also builds a UK Capenhurst HALEU plant for 2031.

## By the numbers

- $2.7bn, total DOE enrichment task orders (Jan 2026).
- $900m, each to General Matter, Centrus and Orano; $28m to Global Laser Enrichment.
- 2.1m SWU, new capacity at Urenco's Eunice, NM plant (online 2032-2036).
- 1 Jan 2028, expiry of Russian-LEU import waivers.
- ~3 years, DOE estimate of US utility LEU inventory cushion.

## Why it matters

Enrichment is the hardest link in the fuel cycle to rebuild, Russia long held ~a quarter of
global capacity. The 2028 cliff turns a policy ambition into a procurement race; if Western SWU
lags, utilities face either waivers, price spikes, or fuel shortfalls for the reactor fleet.

## What to watch

- Whether new SWU comes online before inventories deplete near 2028.
- HALEU output scale-up for SMR and advanced-reactor first cores.
- Russian counter-measures on enrichment and conversion exports.

## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens)

### unlabelled
- **US Department of Energy** (United States, en) — DOE announcement of $2.7bn in enrichment task orders, $900m each to General Matter, American Centrifuge Operating (Centrus) and Orano Federal Services, plus $28m to Global Laser Enrichment.
  Source: https://www.energy.gov/articles/us-department-energy-awards-27-billion-restore-american-uranium-enrichment
- **Urenco USA** (United States, en) — Company release: Eunice, New Mexico expansion to add 2.1m SWU of new centrifuge capacity, first cascades from 2032 through 2036.
  Source: https://www.urenco.com/news/uusa/2026/urenco-usa-plans-significant-expansion-of-us-uranium-enrichment-capacity
- **ANS Nuclear Newswire** (United States, en) — 
  Source: https://www.ans.org/news/article-7652/doe-awards-27b-for-haleu-and-leu-enrichment/
- **MINING.COM** (Canada, en) — 
  Source: https://www.mining.com/web/us-awards-2-7-billion-worth-of-orders-to-boost-uranium-enrichment
- **Power Magazine** (United States, en) — 
  Source: https://www.powermag.com/centrus-completes-900-kg-haleu-delivery-to-doe-in-u-s-nuclear-fuel-enrichment-milestone/
- **Nuclear Engineering International** (United Kingdom, en) — 
  Source: https://www.neimagazine.com/news/urenco-in-us-enrichment-expansion/
- **The Oregon Group** (Canada, en) — 
  Source: https://theoregongroup.com/commodities/uranium/us-plans-2-7-billion-investment-to-restore-uranium-enrichment/
- **ExecutiveGov** (United States, en) — 
  Source: https://www.executivegov.com/articles/energy-department-task-orders-haleu-leu
- **World Nuclear Association** (United Kingdom, en) — 
  Source: https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/conversion-enrichment-and-fabrication/high-assay-low-enriched-uranium-haleu

### nuclear-industry trade
- **World Nuclear News** (United Kingdom, en) — Reads the split awards as Washington seeding parallel LEU and HALEU supply chains to end Russian dependence, with the 2028 import-waiver expiry as the forcing deadline.
  > "The task orders create domestic HALEU capacity and expand US LEU enrichment to cut reliance on Russia."
  Source: https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/doe-awards-usd27-billion-to-strengthen-us-uranium-enrichment

### European nuclear policy
- **NucNet** (Belgium, en) — Stresses the transatlantic dimension: US buildout plus Urenco's UK Capenhurst HALEU plant and Russia's tit-for-tat export ban frame a bloc-wide fuel-cycle decoupling.
  > "US nuclear fuel makers get $2.7 billion as Washington bids to end reliance on Russia."
  Source: https://www.nucnet.org/news/us-nuclear-fuel-makers-get-usd2-7-billion-as-washington-bids-to-ends-reliance-on-russia-1-2-2026

## Across the graph
- Related: [[uranium-price-plateau-2026]], [[kazatomprom-2026-output-strategy]], [[rosatom-foreign-fleet-2026]], [[smr-data-center-orders-2026]]
- Entities: Enrichment, Uranium, United States, Russia, Urenco, Centrus

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Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/ar/n/us-enrichment-deRussification-2026