Latest news with #Urenco
CNBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
This uranium company wants to break the grip that foreign state corporations have on U.S. nuclear fuel
President Donald Trump's push to dramatically increase nuclear power in the U.S. will require a tremendous amount of fuel, but the country remains heavily dependent on foreign state-owned companies for its supplies, the CEO of the only publicly traded uranium enricher in the world told CNBC. "There's barely enough Western enrichment, if at all, to satisfy existing operating plants," Centrus Energy CEO Amir Vexler said in an interview. "If the nuclear industry is to add all this generation capacity, there will have to be a tremendous amount of enrichment capacity that's added." Trump issued a series of executive orders on nuclear power last month that set a target for the U.S. to quadruple the sector's capacity to 400 gigawatts by 2050. Nuclear energy is one of the few issues in deeply polarized Washington these days that enjoys some level of bipartisan support. Trump's push expands on former President Joe Biden's goal to triple nuclear power by midcentury. Most nuclear plants worldwide use low-enriched uranium, or LEU. The U.S. relied on foreign countries for around 70% of the fuel for its reactors in 2023, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. About 27% of U.S. fuel purchases came from Russia that year, one of the principle geopolitical foes of the U.S. But Russian uranium will be forced out of the U.S. supply chain by 2028 at the latest, after Biden signed legislation in 2024 to ban imports over Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. faces a looming nuclear fuel supply gap due to the loss of Russian uranium. Western enrichment capacity, meanwhile, is dominated by two players that are not American owned. They are France's Orano and a British-Dutch-German consortium called Urenco, according to the World Nuclear Association. The European enrichers are reliable partners and have done a good job supporting the market, Vexler told CNBC. But trade tensions threaten to disrupt global supply chains, he said on the Centrus first-quarter earnings call. "We don't have any domestic fuel cycle capacity, almost at all," Vexler told CNBC, referring to American-owned companies. "We don't mine anything, we don't convert anything. We don't enrich anything. We rely on others. And others are all state-owned enterprises, maybe with a few minor exceptions." The only commercial enrichment facility operating in the U.S. is owned by Urenco, the European consortium. It is located in Eunice, New Mexico. Centrus wants to break the stranglehold that state-owned corporations have over the U.S. nuclear fuel supply chain. "The circumstances in the market are such that we believe and we're staking everything we have on the fact that the market needs another enricher," Vexler said. "It needs competition." Trump directed federal agencies on May 23 to develop a plan to expand uranium enrichment capabilities in the U.S. to meet the needs of the civilian and defense sectors. The president's order is sparse on concrete details about how domestic enrichment will be stood up in the U.S. But Centrus' stock has gained 46% as of Thursday's close since Trump's announcement as Wall Street sees the company playing a key role in the effort. The company's shares have risen more than 7% this week as Meta's deal to buy nuclear power from Constellation Energy has reinforced the view that demand is increasing as the tech sector hunts for electricity for its data centers. Centrus is one of just two companies that are licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to produce low-enriched uranium in the U.S., the other being Urenco. Bethesda, Maryland-based Centrus is also the only company in the U.S. that has a license to produce a type of fuel that some next-generation nuclear plant designs, such as small modular reactors, are planning to use. The U.S. wasn't always dependent on foreign countries. It was the first country to enrich uranium for the commercial market and was a dominant player in the market through the 1980s. The federal government owned and operated the nation's enrichment facilities during that period. The U.S. sold its enrichment business through a company called the United States Enrichment Corp. in a public offering in 1998. USEC went bankrupt in 2014 as nuclear plants struggled to compete against cheap natural gas and support for the industry declined in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. Centrus emerged from the reorganization of USEC later that year and is now profitable. "We were just not able to compete with other government, state-owned competitors," said Vexler, who took over the helm at Centrus in 2024. When times got tough for the industry, national governments in Europe and Russia would not allow their state-owned enrichers to fail, he said. Centrus operates an enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, about 95 miles east of Cincinnati that could one day supply a major portion of U.S. nuclear fuel needs. The Ohio facility has a footprint the size of the Pentagon and could produce enriched uranium equivalent to about 25% of the total purchased by U.S. power plants in 2023, according to Centrus. This is nearly equivalent to the amount of enriched uranium imported from Russia that year. "If that is not sufficient, if domestic requirements, national security requirements, export requirements exceed that, then obviously we have the capability to expand as well," Vexler said. The Ohio plant has not launched commercial operations yet. It is currently producing a small amount of the fuel that the developers of advanced reactor designs are banking on, called high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. The Department of Energy buys the fuel that Centrus produces. Centrus' main business right now is importing LEU for U.S. nuclear plants with contracts that run through 2040. It has a waiver to import Russian LEU through 2025 and has applied for waivers through 2027. Under U.S. law, exceptions that allow Russian imports will cease by 2028. Centrus plans to transition away from its trading business as it stands up its domestic enrichment capacity. The vast majority of the enriched uranium produced in Ohio will be sold on the commercial market and potentially for export, Vexler said. "I would certainly aim for us to not only backfill sort of the vacancy that the Russians are creating, but I also hope that we're going to gain market share, both in the LEU and in the HALEU market," Vexler said. But this will require some level of government support given the state-owned competition, he said. Congress has passed $3.4 billion to support domestic enrichment and reduce U.S. dependence particularly on Russia. Centrus is one of several companies competing for the funding. "We've always said that it has to be a public-private partnership," Vexler said. "We've been raising our own funds. We've been raising our own financing. We will contribute significantly to this, but we have to have government support." "There is a path here where we could have a prosperous, commercially competitive American industry," he said.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Urenco and Ubaryon to Form Strategic Partnership
Winnipeg, Manitoba--(Newsfile Corp. - May 5, 2025) - Snow Lake Resources Ltd., d/b/a Snow Lake Energy (NASDAQ: LITM) ("Snow Lake"), a uranium exploration and development company, advises that Ubaryon Pty Ltd ("Ubaryon") has provided a shareholder update to announce that it has signed a Term Sheet with Urenco Limited ("Urenco") to form a strategic partnership. This is a significant milestone which will materially assist the future commercialization of Ubaryon's uranium enrichment technology. Highlights Ubaryon achieves a major milestone forming a strategic partnership with Urenco to advance its Uranium Enrichment Technology Urenco is a global uranium enrichment company with enrichment facilities in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA Ubaryon is a private Australian company which owns 100% of a unique and innovative technology for uranium enrichment Urenco to invest A$5.0m to advance the technology over the next 3 years, providing strategic validation of Ubaryon's technology as well as significant resources and expertise to help de-risk steps towards commercialization Global Uranium and Enrichment Limited ("GUE") is the largest shareholder in Ubaryon (21.9%) and will remain the largest shareholder post the transaction Ubaryon independently assessed at technology readiness level of TRL-4 which highlights the development done to date and the strong platform for this new partnership to build on Snow Lake holds a cornerstone 19.9% interest in GUE, which in turn holds a 21.9% interest in Ubaryon Urenco Strategic Investment Ubaryon has signed a non-binding Term Sheet with Urenco, a global uranium enrichment company, to form a strategic partnership. The agreement was reached after a comprehensive process involving a targeted group of potential investors and partners, conducted within the controls of the security legislation that Ubaryon's technology is regulated by. Under the terms of the agreement, Urenco will invest a total of A$5.0 million in Ubaryon over the next 3 years for a 13% stake in Ubaryon. The Term Sheet is subject to the usual and reasonable conditions precedent for completion of an investment of this nature including receiving Ubaryon shareholder approval for the transaction, Foreign Investment Review Board approval and execution of binding transaction documentation. Urenco is an international supplier of enrichment services with sustainability at the core of its business. Operating in the nuclear fuel supply chain for 50 years, Urenco has its head office near London, UK, and enrichment facilities in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. Urenco's commitment, coming after detailed due diligence, validates GUE's historical investment in Ubaryon and significantly de-risks the business, thereby enhancing GUE's exposure to midstream nuclear fuel supply chains. Ubaryon has committed to working exclusively with Urenco to complete the transaction which will also provide Urenco the ability to potentially increase its stake in Ubaryon through acquiring shares from existing shareholders and a potential pathway to secure the Ubaryon technology at a fair market value at some point in the future when the technology has been further advanced. Ubaryon stated in the shareholder update, that the Ubaryon board has been impressed by the diligent and professional way in which Urenco has engaged in the due diligence process and that it is clear that there are significant synergies between companies. Urenco's deep technical, regulatory, market expertise, resources and strategic position in the nuclear fuel supply chain industry will make them the ideal strategic shareholder for Ubaryon. Ubaryon's board considers that Urenco's investment will also significantly assist the future commercialization of Ubaryon's technology to the extent that no other strategic investor could. Ubaryon will request all shareholders (with GUE being the largest shareholder) to provide a waiver of pre-emptive rights to purchase shares to allow the transaction with Urenco to proceed and will also schedule a Ubaryon shareholder meeting to approve the transaction and its terms and conditions. It should be noted that, as a binding agreement has not yet been signed, there is no certainty that the transaction will complete within a specific timeframe, nor that it will complete at all. Ubaryon Technology Rapidly Advancing - TRL 4 As a part of the due diligence process, Ubaryon has received two independent technical reviews confirming the technology is currently at Technology Readiness Level ("TRL") assessment level of TRL-4. The TRL index is a globally accepted benchmarking tool for tracking progress in the development of a new technology through the early-stage research (TRL-1) to technologies ready for scaled commercial operations (TRL-9). TRL-4 shows that all critical components were successfully validated in a laboratory environment and supported by experimental results. Combined with the validation provided as a result of Urenco's due diligence, these independent assessments give confidence that Ubaryon's technology has a sound foundation for further development. As a point of comparison, Global Laser Enrichment1 ("GLE") which is the vehicle of the SILEX uranium technology (jointly owned by SILEX Systems Limited 51% and Cameco Corporation 49%), is aiming for completing a commercial-scale pilot demonstration to provide TRL-6 of the SILEX technology around mid-2025. Ubaryon Background Ubaryon is a private Australian company which is developing and commercializing a unique uranium enrichment technology based on the chemical separation of naturally occurring uranium isotopes. Ubaryon was established in 2015 after environmental testing identified a process anomaly, after which Ubaryon lodged a patent application over its Ubaryon Enrichment Technology in 2018. Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office ("ASNO") classified the intellectual property in September 2018. ASNO and Defense Export Controls now regulate all Ubaryon's technical disclosure. A significant feature of the Ubaryon Enrichment Technology is that it eliminates the need for conversion from uranium oxide or yellowcake (UO4 or U3O8) to gaseous uranium (UF6) and the need for deconversion from UF6 to uranium oxide. Removing conversion and deconversion simplifies the enrichment process and allows for additional flexibility in the nuclear fuel cell supply chain. About Snow Lake Resources Ltd. Snow Lake Resources Ltd., d/b/a Snow Lake Energy, is a Canadian mineral exploration company listed on (NASDAQ: LITM), with a global portfolio of critical mineral and clean energy projects. The Pine Ridge Uranium project is an exploration stage project located in Wyoming, United States, and the Engo Valley Uranium Project is an exploration stage project located in the Skeleton Coast of Namibia. Snow Lake also holds a portfolio of additional exploration stage critical minerals projects located in Manitoba. Learn more at Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the "safe harbor" provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements with regard to Snow Lake Resources Ltd.. We base these forward-looking statements on our expectations and projections about future events, which we derive from the information currently available to us. Forward-Looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "seek," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "target," "aim," "should," "will," "would," or the negative of these words or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-Looking statements are based on Snow Lake Resources Ltd.'s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Some of these risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled "Risk Factors" in our registration statements and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-Looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Snow Lake Resources Ltd. undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law. Contact and InformationFrank Wheatley, CEO Investor RelationsInvestors:ir@ Follow us on Social MediaTwitter: 1 To view the source version of this press release, please visit
Bloomberg
14-03-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Nuclear Power Boom Means Even Germany Is Drawing New Investment
Resurgent interest in atomic power means the world's second-biggest provider of enriched uranium is expanding even in Germany, which remains an essential link in the international fuel cycle despite turning off all its reactors. 'Strange as it may sound,' said Ralf ter Haar, chief financial officer at Urenco Ltd.
