# What Came Out of ANS Global 2026 on Nuclear Fuel?

Six concrete fuel-cycle commitments — spanning [uranium enrichment](https://smrintel.com/glossary/enrichment), TRISO fabrication, [HALEU](https://smrintel.com/glossary/haleu) supply, and spent-fuel recycling — emerged from the American Nuclear Society's Global 2026 conference in Chicago last week, signaling that the industry's chronic fuel supply anxiety is beginning to generate durable commercial responses.

The headline number: [Urenco](https://smrintel.com/companies/urenco) USA is adding 2.1 million separative work units of new capacity at its National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico — a nearly 50 percent expansion, structured across 24 new centrifuge cascades, with first production targeted for 2032 and build-out continuing through 2036. That single project represents the largest announced increment of domestic [low-enriched uranium](https://smrintel.com/glossary/leu) capacity in a generation.

Alongside the Urenco announcement, LIS Technologies broke ground on a laser-based enrichment campus in Oak Ridge, [Radiant Industries](https://smrintel.com/companies/radiant-industries) locked in a TRISO fuel supply agreement with Standard Nuclear, [Nano Nuclear Energy](https://smrintel.com/companies/nano-nuclear-energy) signed a HALEU MOU with Quadrant Nuclear Industries, [GE Vernova](https://smrintel.com/companies/ge-vernova) and Shine partnered on an AI-driven spent-fuel tracking project funded by ARPA-E, and ASP Isotopes disclosed a uranium conversion evaluation in Namibia. Taken together, these announcements span every major segment of the fuel cycle.

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## Urenco's 2.1M SWU Expansion Is the Anchor Story

The August 18 groundbreaking at Eunice drew Secretary of Energy Chris Wright alongside Urenco CEO Boris Schucht — a level of political visibility that signals the expansion carries strategic significance beyond a routine capacity addition. The 24 new centrifuge cascades will use Urenco's gas-centrifuge technology, which is already the backbone of U.S. domestic LEU supply.

The 2032 first-cascade start date is worth scrutinizing. Several advanced reactor developers — including those targeting early-2030s deployments — have pointed to domestic enrichment capacity as a pacing constraint. A 2032 first-production date means new SWU will arrive roughly in line with, not ahead of, anticipated demand from fleet restarts and new builds. The cascades continuing to install through 2036 suggest Urenco is building in staged flexibility, but utilities and reactor developers planning around FOAK timelines should not assume surplus capacity will be available early in the decade.

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## LIS Technologies Takes Laser Enrichment from Lab to Acre

LIS Technologies has commenced initial site-preparation work on its 206-acre "LIST Island" parcel in the East Tennessee Technology Park Heritage Center in Oak Ridge — the former site of the Manhattan Project-era K-25 gaseous diffusion plant. The facility, formally called the LEU-3 Facility, will house the company's Project F.U.E.L. (Future Uranium Enrichment with Lasers) commercial operations and R&D.

The $1.38 billion total investment figure cited by the company for redeveloping the area is notable in scale, but current site work consists of environmental assessments and feasibility studies — the earliest stages of project development. Laser-based enrichment has been pursued by multiple companies over several decades without reaching commercial-scale production; LIS Technologies is in effect asking investors and fuel buyers to believe it has cracked a technically demanding problem that others have not. The Oak Ridge site selection carries symbolic weight and infrastructure advantages, but the technology risk profile remains distinct from Urenco's proven centrifuge approach.

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## TRISO and HALEU Supply Chains Begin to Solidify

**Radiant / Standard Nuclear:** [Radiant Industries](https://smrintel.com/companies/radiant-industries) has signed a fuel supply agreement with Standard Nuclear under which Standard Nuclear will fabricate TRISO fuel to meet specifications for Radiant's 1-MWe Kaleidos microreactor. Radiant framed the deal as strengthening its "fully owned end-to-end supply chain" as it advances full-scale testing and customer deployments through the early 2030s.

TRISO fabrication at commercial scale remains a constrained capability in the United States. Standard Nuclear's involvement signals another entrant is positioning for what could be meaningful demand from multiple microreactor developers — not just Radiant. For Radiant, securing a named fabricator with contractual standing is a meaningful de-risking step ahead of customer commitments to government and commercial operators.

**Nano Nuclear / Quadrant Nuclear Industries:** [Nano Nuclear Energy](https://smrintel.com/companies/nano-nuclear-energy) and Quadrant Nuclear Industries have signed a memorandum of understanding covering potential supply and long-term offtake of HALEU produced at Quadrant's planned Vanguard facility at Idaho National Laboratory. The MOU is explicitly nonbinding — standard for early-stage supply chain alignment — and its value lies primarily in signaling that Nano Nuclear's Kronos MMR Energy System has a named fuel pathway and that QNI's INL-based production concept is attracting reactor developer attention.

The DOE's involvement in the Vanguard facility's development adds credibility, but a nonbinding MOU at this stage should be read as intent, not contracted supply.

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## ARPA-E Funds AI and Radiochemical Tools for Spent Fuel

Two separate collaborations announced at Global 2026 address the back end of the fuel cycle — a segment that has received far less commercial momentum than enrichment and fabrication.

**GE Vernova / Shine:** Shine is partnering with [GE Vernova](https://smrintel.com/companies/ge-vernova)'s Advanced Research Center on a DOE ARPA-E-funded project to develop MAYER (Monochromatic Assays Yielding Enhanced Reliability), an AI-based system for real-time tracking and measurement of nuclear material flowing through a recycling facility. The system's data would feed into a digital twin to support safeguards and reduce operating costs. This is early-stage research infrastructure — the kind of foundational work that makes commercial recycling operations defensible to regulators and cost-competitive at scale.

**Shine / Argonne / Case Western Reserve University:** A second ARPA-E-funded collaboration, this one under the CURIE (Converting UNF Radioisotopes Into Energy) Program and led by Case Western Reserve University, applies Argonne National Laboratory's PACERS (Packed Centrifugal Equipment for Radiochemical Separation) technology to Shine's fuel recycling process. PACERS enables separation of radioisotopes including strontium-90 and americium-241 — materials with value in medical and advanced energy applications. The dual-use economics here are potentially significant: isotope sales could cross-subsidize recycling operations that might otherwise struggle to compete on fuel economics alone.

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## ASP Isotopes Eyes Namibian Uranium Conversion

ASP Isotopes subsidiary Quantum Leap Energy is evaluating a pilot-scale hydrofluorination and fluorination facility in the Walvis Bay area of Namibia — a potential conversion-stage (uranium concentrate to uranium hexafluoride) operation upstream of enrichment. The evaluation began with a public environmental and social impact assessment, placing this firmly in the feasibility phase. Namibia's uranium mining sector makes geographic logic here clear: positioning conversion capacity close to mine output reduces logistical complexity and could offer cost advantages. Whether this advances to construction depends heavily on regulatory outcomes and market pricing dynamics that remain unresolved.

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## Industry Trajectory: Supply Chain Architecture, Not Just Announcements

The collective output of Global 2026 reflects an industry doing something it has historically done poorly: building the fuel supply chain in advance of reactor deployments rather than scrambling to catch up after commitments are made.

The Urenco expansion is the only announcement with fully proven technology and a concrete production timeline. The rest — laser enrichment, advanced TRISO fabrication at scale, HALEU production at INL, AI-enabled recycling, Namibian conversion — are at varying stages of development, each carrying distinct technical and regulatory risk. None of these supply chain components are guaranteed to reach commercial operation on the timelines implied by the announcements.

What is clear is that the volume and diversity of fuel-cycle activity now underway exceeds anything the advanced nuclear sector has seen in the past decade. Whether that translates into reliable fuel supply for the SMR and microreactor fleets targeting early-2030s deployments will depend on execution — and on whether the demand signal from reactor developers remains strong enough to justify the capital commitments these projects require.

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## Key Takeaways

- **Urenco USA is adding 2.1 million SWU** of centrifuge-based enrichment capacity at its Eunice, NM facility across 24 new cascades, with first production in 2032 and installation continuing through 2036 — a nearly 50 percent capacity increase.
- **LIS Technologies has broken ground** on its 206-acre LEU-3 laser enrichment campus in Oak Ridge, representing a $1.38 billion planned investment, with site work currently limited to environmental and feasibility studies.
- **Radiant has a named TRISO fabricator**: Standard Nuclear will supply fuel for Kaleidos 1-MWe microreactor deployments through the early 2030s.
- **Nano Nuclear and Quadrant Nuclear Industries** signed a nonbinding MOU for potential HALEU supply from QNI's planned Vanguard facility at Idaho National Laboratory.
- **GE Vernova and Shine** are developing MAYER, an ARPA-E-funded AI system for real-time spent-fuel tracking at recycling facilities.
- **ASP Isotopes' Quantum Leap Energy** is evaluating a pilot uranium conversion facility in Namibia's Walvis Bay area — the earliest feasibility stage.

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**What was announced at ANS Global 2026 on nuclear fuel?**
Six fuel-cycle developments were announced at the ANS Fuel Cycle & Waste Management Division's Global 2026 conference in Chicago: Urenco USA's 2.1 million SWU enrichment expansion in New Mexico; LIS Technologies' groundbreaking on a laser enrichment campus in Oak Ridge; a TRISO fuel supply agreement between Radiant and Standard Nuclear; a HALEU MOU between Nano Nuclear Energy and Quadrant Nuclear Industries; an ARPA-E-funded AI spent-fuel tracking project from GE Vernova and Shine; and ASP Isotopes' uranium conversion evaluation in Namibia.

**When will Urenco's new enrichment capacity come online?**
Urenco USA's first new cascades at the National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico are scheduled to start production in 2032, with additional cascades installed through 2036. The expansion adds 2.1 million separative work units across 24 new centrifuge cascades.

**What is LIS Technologies' LEU-3 Facility?**
The LEU-3 Facility, also called LIST Island, is a 206-acre commercial laser-based uranium enrichment campus being developed by LIS Technologies at the East Tennessee Technology Park Heritage Center in Oak Ridge — the former site of the Manhattan Project's K-25 gaseous diffusion plant. The company cited a $1.38 billion total investment to redevelop the area. Current work covers environmental assessments and feasibility studies.

**What is the Radiant-Standard Nuclear fuel agreement?**
Radiant and Standard Nuclear have signed a fuel supply agreement under which Standard Nuclear will fabricate TRISO fuel to specifications for Radiant's 1-MWe Kaleidos microreactor, supporting planned government and commercial deployments through the early 2030s.

**What is Quadrant Nuclear's Vanguard facility?**
Vanguard is a planned HALEU production facility that Quadrant Nuclear Industries intends to build at Idaho National Laboratory in coordination with the Department of Energy. Nano Nuclear Energy signed a nonbinding MOU with QNI covering potential long-term HALEU offtake from Vanguard to fuel its Kronos MMR Energy System.

**How does the GE Vernova-Shine ARPA-E project work?**
The MAYER project, led by GE Vernova's Advanced Research Center and funded by DOE's ARPA-E division, uses artificial intelligence to track and measure nuclear material in real time as it moves through a spent-fuel recycling facility. The gathered data feeds into a digital twin intended to strengthen safeguards and lower operating costs.