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4w ago

FluxPoint Launches Plan for First New U.S. Uranium Conversion Plant in 70 Years

Policy shifts are spurring private projects to rebuild a domestic fuel step that has long relied on foreign processors.

The conversion process reacts solid uranium oxide with fluorine to produce UF6 gas. (Representational image)
Nuclear fuel cycle. This infographic illustrates the stages in a nuclear fuel cycle, which include uranium recovery, conversion, enrichment, and fabrication, to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. Uranium is recovered or extracted from ore, converted, and enriched. Then, the enriched uranium is manufactured into pellets. These pellets are placed into fuel assemblies to power nuclear reactors. Note: Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, including mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, is not practiced in the U.S. Source: NRC

Overview

  • FluxPoint announced at CERAWeek this week a Texas plant to convert uranium oxide into uranium hexafluoride gas for enrichment, which would be the first new U.S. conversion site in more than seven decades.
  • The company says it has secured land, started front-end engineering design, finished feasibility and market studies, begun talks with the NRC, and is targeting first production in 2030–2031.
  • Uranium Energy Corp’s UR&C unit recently received an NRC docket number for its own facility, signaling a private race to restore this chokepoint in the nuclear fuel chain.
  • The U.S. today relies on a single commercial converter, Solstice’s Metropolis Works in Illinois, which restarted in 2023 and expects to produce more than 10 kilotonnes of UF6 in 2026.
  • Stronger demand and policy are driving the push, with a federal law phasing out Russian uranium by 2028, new DOE orders to expand enrichment this year, and utilities seeking long-term domestic supply contracts.