By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Urenco USA said on Tuesday it is expanding by nearly 50% the only U.S. facility currently enriching commercial levels of uranium for nuclear power plants, an investment it said is backed by signed, long-term contracts with U.S. customers.

• Urenco, owned by the UK and Dutch governments and two German utilities, did not win any of the $2.7 billion in orders that the U.S. Energy Department awarded in January to competitors including Centrus LEU.N, General Matter, and Orano.

• Urenco's investment comes as a U.S. ban on enriched uranium imports from Russia, signed by former President Joe Biden to pressure Moscow over its war in Ukraine and expand U.S. enrichment capacity, is set to take full effect in 2028.

• The U.S. still gets up to 25% of its uranium from Russia.

• Urenco said its "multi-billion dollar" expansion comes as its global order book is rising. At the end of 2025 it hit a record value of 21.3 billion euros ($24.78 billion), up 14% from 2024.

• Urenco will install 2.1 million separative work units (SWU) of annual enrichment capacity at the facility in New Mexico using gas-centrifuge enrichment. The facility has an existing capacity of 4.3 million SWU.

• Up to 24 cascades of centrifuges will be installed, with the initial ones starting in 2032 and additional ones installed through 2036.

• Uranium resulting from the expansion is initially planned to meet demand from existing reactors.

• The capacity could also supply planned next-generation nuclear plants including small modular reactors.

• Urenco's facility will produce low-enriched uranium (LEU) that is enriched up to 5% and used in today's reactors

• It could also produce an emerging fuel called LEU+, or LEU enriched up to 10%, and feedstock for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enriched up to 20%, expected to be used in some next-generation reactors.