Department of Energy awards $2.7 billion in contracts to boost uranium production

The Trump administration is awarding orders totaling $2.7 billion to three companies to increase the enrichment of domestic uranium over the next decade, thereby reducing the nation’s reliance on foreign suppliers, such as Russia, that have raised concerns.

Department of Energy officials this week said the orders will expand U.S. capacity for low-enriched uranium (LEU) and jump-start new supply chains for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), which will be needed for more than half of the small modular reactor designs in development.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Trump administration is “committed to restoring a secure domestic nuclear fuel supply chain capable of producing the nuclear fuels needed to power the reactors of today and the advanced reactors of tomorrow.”

American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter and Orano Federal Services secured the Department of Energy contracts. The government requires the companies to meet specific milestones to provide the uranium enrichment services.

“Developing this new domestic production capacity for LEU and HALEU ensures an adequate fuel supply is available to maintain operations of the nation’s 94 commercial reactors and builds a strong base to supply future deployments of advanced nuclear reactors,” the Energy Department said this week in a statement.

Currently, Russia is the only country that makes HALEU, enriched to between 5% and 20%, in sufficient quantities to make new high-tech reactors more efficient. The U.S. banned new imports of Russian uranium in 2024 but allows continued imports until Jan. 1, 2028, to prevent reactor shutdowns.

“We wrongly decided to export our ability to domestically enrich uranium to Russia, a massive national security and economic blunder,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, Tennessee Republican, said in an April 2025 essay for The Washington Times. “Decades later, we see the absurdity of outsourcing the production of enriched uranium to an adversarial and authoritarian nation as we struggle with an increasingly difficult supply chain.”