Meirzhan Yussupov

As Western countries accelerate their decarbonization efforts, nuclear power is set to play a key role in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. For instance, the United Kingdom’s goal of expanding nuclear capacity to 24 gigawatts by mid-century, meeting 25 percent of projected electricity demand, highlights the need for reliable, low-carbon energy sources. As the world’s top uranium producer, Kazakhstan is poised to be a vital partner in this transition, supplying the fuel that powers nuclear reactors and supports the U.K.’s and other Western countries’ clean energy goals.

At COP28 in 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency emphasized the urgent need to accelerate deployment of nuclear power to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. This sentiment was reinforced the following year at COP29, where 31 countries committed to tripling nuclear capacity by 2050 to meet global climate goals. These developments highlight the growing recognition of nuclear energy’s role in providing reliable, low-carbon power essential for a sustainable future.

Melbye

During an interview for Kitco News at the 2025 Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention, held in Toronto in early March, the chief executive of British Columbia–based Uranium Royalty Corp. noted, “I’ve never seen a better narrative around nuclear power [and] uranium.”

CEO Scott Melbye, who is also executive vice president of Texas-based Uranium Energy Corp. and has 41 years of experience in the uranium sector, added that nuclear energy has gone from stagnation or decline to a point where it may double by 2040.

U.S. uranium production increased throughout 2024, with more growth planned in 2025. The producers who can make that happen, however, were burned before by a “renaissance” that didn’t take off. Now they are watching and waiting for signals from Washington, D.C., including the impacts of tariffs, shifting relationships with global uranium producers, and funding for the enrichment task orders designed to boost demand for U.S. uranium.

Denver-based Energy Fuels Inc., one of the largest uranium producers in the United States, has signed a landmark agreement with the Navajo Nation on the transport of uranium ore along federal and state highways that cross through Navajo land. The agreement allows the resumption of uranium ore transport from Energy Fuels’ Pinyon Plain Mine in northern Arizona to the company’s White Mesa Mill in southern Utah, where the ore is processed into natural uranium concentrates (U₃O₈).

Wright

Chris Wright, president-elect Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Energy, spent hours today fielding questions from members of the U.S. Senate’s committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

During the hearing, Wright—who’s spent most of his career in fossil fuels—made comments in support of nuclear energy and efforts to expand domestic generation in the near future. Asked what actions he would take as energy secretary to improve the development and deployment of SMRs, Wright said: “It’s a big challenge, and I’m new to government, so I can’t list off the five levers I can pull. But (I’ve been in discussions) about how to make it easier to research, to invest, to build things. The DOE has land at some of its facilities that can be helpful in this regard.”

The uranium market closed out 2024 with a spot price of $72.63 per pound and a long-term price of $80.50 per pound, according to global uranium provider Cameco.

Just one day after Urenco USA (UUSA) was picked by the Department of Energy as one of six contractors eligible to compete for future low-enriched uranium task orders, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on December 11 formally approved the company’s license amendment request to boost uranium enrichment levels at its Eunice, N.M., enrichment facility to 10 percent fissile uranium-235—up from its current limit of 5.5 percent.

U.S. and Israeli officials are now confirming that an October 25 Israeli attack in Iran destroyed an active top secret facility for nuclear weapons research, Axios reports. The strike is said to have significantly hampered efforts by Iran to resume weapons research, despite ongoing denials from the country’s leaders that there is an active weapons program.

TerraPower announced today that it has signed a term sheet with ASP Isotopes Inc. as the first step of a planned investment in the construction of a high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment facility and the eventual purchase of HALEU produced at the facility to fuel its Natrium fast reactors.

If we needed more proof that this is a “nuclear week”—in the words of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday, as she announced small modular reactor funding while celebrating tech company investments in advanced reactors—the Department of Energy came through late yesterday when, just nine days after announcing six contracts for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) deconversion, it announced four contracts for HALEU enrichment services worth up to $2.7 billion. Those contracts are going to Centrus Energy’s American Centrifuge Operating subsidiary, General Matter, Orano Federal Services, and Urenco USA’s Louisiana Energy Services.

BWX Technologies subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. suspended operations last Friday at a Tennessee facility to assess conditions following Hurricane Helene. A company spokesperson said the site remained "in safe and secure condition."

On September 4, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced that Orano had selected Oak Ridge as its preferred site to build a “multibillion-dollar” uranium centrifuge enrichment facility. For Tennessee, the announcement underscores Oak Ridge’s draw for nuclear technology companies. For Orano and the nuclear power community, the announcement is another sign the nation is edging closer to adding front-end nuclear fuel cycle capacity.

BWX Technologies announced on August 26 that its Nuclear Fuel Services subsidiary had received a contract from the National Nuclear Security Administration for a yearlong engineering study of a pilot plant capable of testing a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment technology developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and producing domestic-origin enriched uranium the NNSA can use for multiple national security purposes. BWXT, which has a long history of providing fuel fabrication and downblending services for the federal government, has not—until now—included enrichment in its portfolio.

Uranium enricher Urenco welcomed representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency to an August 19 event to mark the creation of an IAEA Centre of Excellence for Safeguards and Non-Proliferation at its Capenhurst, England, site. Representatives of the three nations with ownership stakes in Urenco—the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany—were joined by representatives from the United States, where Urenco also operates an enrichment plant. Urenco expects the new center to be fully operational in 2025.

Westinghouse Electric Company announced Aug. 8 that it has completed the first pressing of ADOPT nuclear fuel pellets at the company’s Springfields Fuel Manufacturing Facility in the United Kingdom. The pellets, which can contain up to 8 percent uranium-235 by weight, are destined for irradiation testing in Southern Nuclear’s Vogtle-2 pressurized water reactor.

A plan to build up a high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel cycle in the United Kingdom to support the deployment of advanced reactors is still in place after the Labour party was voted to power on July 4, bringing 14 years of conservative government to an end. A competitive solicitation for grant funding to build a commercial-scale HALEU deconversion facility opened days before the election, and the support of the new government was confirmed by a set of updates on July 19. But what does the U.K. HALEU program entail, and how does it differ from the U.S. HALEU Availability Program?

The U.S. Senate’s proposed Department of the Interior funding package provides $250,000 to develop a generic, technology-neutral standard for future high-level nuclear waste disposal facilities.

The goal is for the Environmental Protection Agency to use modern and international practices in creating new plans to store U.S. nuclear waste. This spring, the EPA had requested $635,000 to fund this work—but even the proposed $250,000 would help get the process moving.

So far, funding has been included only in the Senate’s version of the appropriations bill, but supporters hope it makes the final package when Senate and House lawmakers conference on the final fiscal year 2025 appropriations legislation this fall.

For more details, see the original story below from June 28.

Utilities need to know months ahead of a scheduled refueling outage that fresh fuel will be on-site and ready to load. Now that the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act has been signed into law, U.S. utilities with plans to use Russian-origin low-enriched uranium also need to know if they can secure a waiver for imports through December 31, 2027—subject to specific annual limits—if “no alternative viable source of [LEU] is available to sustain the continued operation of a nuclear reactor or a United States nuclear energy company” or if LEU imports from Russia are “in the national interest.”

On May 13, President Biden signed the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act, unlocking the $2.72 billion that Congress conditionally appropriated in March to increase production of low-enriched uranium (LEU) and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU).

The United States has an ambitious goal: to establish a high-assay low enriched-uranium advanced nuclear fuel supply chain, revive the once thriving nuclear fuel market for low-enriched uranium in the nation, and “reestablish U.S. leadership in nuclear energy more broadly.” Making a success of that could have impacts beyond the nuclear sector. According to the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, “Expanding domestic LEU and HALEU enrichment production will be essential for fueling the clean energy required to bring down emissions in all sectors of the economy—including in hard-to-abate sectors such as manufacturing and industrial—while delivering high paying jobs to communities across the country.”