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Utah uranium project fast-tracked under US emergency procedures

Wednesday, 14 May 2025

The US Department of the Interior has announced it will expedite the permitting review of Anfield Energy's Velvet-Wood mine in Utah under newly established emergency procedures, with a completion timeline of 14 days for an accelerated environmental review by the Bureau of Land Management.


The accelerated review is part of a strategic response to the national energy emergency declared by President Donald Trump in January, the department said, and is expected to "significantly contribute to meeting urgent energy demands" as well as addressing national energy security concerns. Velvet-Wood is the first uranium project to be prioritised under the emergency procedures.

"The expedited mining project review represents exactly the kind of decisive action we need to secure our energy future," said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. "By cutting needless delays, we’re supporting good-paying American jobs while strengthening our national security and putting the country on a path to true energy independence."

Anfield acquired the Velvet-Wood uranium and vanadium mine from Uranium One in 2015. Some 4 million pounds U3O8 (1539 tU) - as well as 5 million pounds of V2O5 - were recovered from the Velvet deposit between 1979 and 1984 by previous owner Atlas Minerals. The combined Velvet and Wood historical mines are currently estimated to contain 4.6 million pounds U3O8 of measured and indicated resources and inferred resources of 552,000 pounds U3O8.

Anfield submitted a Plan of Operation for the mine to the State of Utah and the Bureau of Land Management in May 2024. It is advancing Velvet-Wood towards production-ready status concurrently with the Shootaring Canyon mill. The Plan of Operation includes specific operating actions and controls, reclamation actions, an estimate of reclamation surety based on third-party costs and technical bases for how the actions meet state and federal regulatory requirements.

Anfield CEO Corey Dias said the company was pleased that Velvet-Wood had been selected for expedited permitting. "As a past-producing uranium and vanadium mine with a small environmental footprint, Velvet-Wood is well-suited for this accelerated review," he said. "This marks a major milestone for Anfield as we look to play a meaningful role in rebuilding America's domestic uranium and vanadium supply chain and reducing reliance on imports from Russia and China."

Scoping study confirms robust economics for Tallahassee uranium project

6th May 2025 By: Mariaan Webb

ASX-listed Global Uranium and Enrichment (GUE) has released a scoping study for the Hansen deposit, part of its Tallahassee uranium project in Colorado, US, confirming a technically viable and economically attractive development opportunity.

The study supports a seven-year mine life, with average production of 1.8-million pounds a year of uranium oxide (U₃O₈). The base case scenario at a uranium price of $90/lb delivers a pre-tax net present value (NPV) of $203-million and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 93%. At $110/lb, the NPV increases to $365-million and the IRR to 145%.

MD Andrew Ferrier described the Hansen deposit as a standout opportunity within the world-class Tallahassee project, which is home to one of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits in the US.

"This scoping study and the impressive results generated, highlighted by a pre-tax IRR of 93% and an NPV of $203-million at $90/lb for U₃O₈, sets out a technically and environmentally viable pathway for Global Uranium to progress its development as we continue to execute on our growth strategy of building a 100-million-pound uranium portfolio."

Pre-production capital costs are estimated at $76-million, with cash operating costs of $58.65/lb U₃O₈, based on a contract ore processing scenario. The mining target comprises 15.2-million pounds of U₃O₈ contained in 5.7-million tonnes of material grading 0.12% U₃O₈, of which 12.9-million pounds will be recovered after beneficiation.
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First concrete for US advanced reactor

Thursday, 8 May 2025

Kairos Power has announced the start of installation of nuclear safety-related concrete marking the start of "nuclear construction" for the Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.


Concrete pouring begins in the first of Hermes' 51 foundational piers (Image: Kairos)

Kairos broke ground for the scaled demonstration of its KP-FHR fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor technology last July, with excavation works completed in October. Safety-related construction activities, which are subject to oversight from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), formally began on 1 May, with the start of work on the piers that will form part of the building's foundation. Hermes will have 51 such piers, which are six feet (just under 2 metres) in diameter and will extend about 40 feet below ground, anchoring the building to bedrock.

Kairos Power CEO and co-founder Mike Laufer described the first safety-related concrete pour for a US advanced reactor under an NRC construction permit as a major milestone. "This achievement reflects the value of our iterative development process to meet the necessary nuclear quality standards and provide crucial real cost information that gives confidence to our customers. It is a testament to the hard work of our dedicated team and represents an enormous amount of learning and progress," he said.


A large auger is used to drill the pier shafts (Image: Kairos)

The concrete pour was the culmination of several months of preparation, Kairos said, coming after programmes to test the drilled pier installation process and refine the company's nuclear quality assurance programme. A full-scale test pier was completed in November, and 70 piers have now been drilled for Kairos Power's ETU 3.0 non-nuclear engineering test unit, which is being built adjacent to the Hermes site as part of Kairos's iterative approach for the development of its KP-FHR technology. It says this has enabled the team, led by Barnard Construction Company, Inc, to become proficient at installing piers using quality control checklists similar to those that will be used for Hermes.


Quality checking rebar for the pier (Image: Kairos)

The Hermes reactor will use tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) uranium fuel and a mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride salts known as Flibe as its coolant. This combination yields robust inherent safety while simplifying the reactor's design, Kairos said.

Hermes, which is supported by risk reduction funding from the US Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, is the first non-light-water reactor to be permitted in the USA in more than 50 years. It will not produce electricity, but Hermes 2 - a two 35 MWt-unit plant for which the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a construction permit in November - will include a power generation system. The commercial deployment of the reactor is supported by a master plant development agreement signed with Google in October 2024, for power from a fleet of up to 500 MW of capacity by 2035.

Roca Honda Project

One of the largest and highest-grade uranium projects in the U.S.
Adjacent to General Atomics’ Mount Taylor Mine
Within trucking distance of the White Mesa Mill
Currently in advanced stages of permitting
Up to 2.7 million pounds of annual uranium production with a 9-year mine life

US to fast track Laramide’s uranium project

Maddison Elliott 07 May, 2025

Laramide Resources’ (ASX:LAM) La Jara Mesa Uranium Project, located in the Grants mineral Belt of New Mexico, has been added to the US Federal Permitting Dashboard, which prioritises reliable supplies of critical minerals.

This inclusion falls under President Donald Trump’s executive order to increase mineral production in North America.

Laramide says the designation identifies La Jara Mesa’s “strategic importance” to domestic uranium production.

The order paves the way for the secretary of defence to include mineral production as a priority industrial capability development area under the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program, positioning uranium and other critical minerals as a national security imperative.

By developing resources for domestic minerals, the government is aiming to lower barriers to entry and mobilise existing funding to support the private sector.

The designation is designed to enhance transparency and accountability by making environmental review timelines accessible to the public.

Laramide, which has a market capitalisation of $188.85 million, says government, industry and community stakeholders will be able to monitor progress of the project and it will ensure a more efficient and coordinated permitting process.

CEO Marc Henderson says the designation is a meaningful milestone that reflects both the strategic value of uranium to US energy security and the importance of developing domestic sources of supply.

“The enhanced transparency and coordination process will facilitate an efficient path forward to advancing La Jara Mesa to production,” he says.

Laramide Resources is an exploration company focusing on the development of high-quality uranium assets in Australia and the US.

enCore Energy accélère l’expansion du projet d’uranium Alta Mesa avec 32 puits opérationnels
La société américaine enCore Energy poursuit l’optimisation de son projet d’uranium au Texas avec une cadence record d’installation de puits et un renforcement de son équipe dirigeante.

Westinghouse's LEU+ fuel loaded into Vogtle 2

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

Westinghouse Electric Company's lead test assemblies with LEU+ fuel have been loaded into Unit 2 of the Vogtle nuclear power plant - a first for such fuel in a commercial reactor in the USA.


The delivery of LEU+ fuel to Vogtle (Image: Southern Nuclear)

Commercial reactors currently operate on fuel that typically contains 3-5% by weight of uranium-235 - the main fissile isotope that produces energy during a chain reaction, known as low-enriched uranium (LEU). LEU+ fuel is enriched to 5-10% uranium-235. The higher enrichment could help extend the length of fuel cycles, lead to power uprates, and lower costs by reducing the number of outages needed for refuelling.

The advanced fuel is enriched to 6% uranium-235 and was developed through the US Department of Energy (DOE) Accident Tolerant Fuel Program to help improve fuel cycle safety and lower operational costs. The DOE said: "The pellets, which also include additives expected to enhance safety performance, were derived from higher enriched uranium oxide powder that was first prepared by Idaho National Laboratory. The powder was further processed into fuel pellets and fabricated into pins before they were shipped to Vogtle Unit 2 for commercial testing."

The EnCore ATF Lead Test Assemblies with greater-than-5% LEU+ ADOPT fuel, chromium coated cladding and AXIOM cladding, were manufactured at Westinghouse’s Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in Hopkins, South Carolina.


The LEU+ fuel loaded into Vogtle Unit 2 (Image: Southern Nuclear)

Tarik Choho, Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel President, said: “We are proud to have achieved this milestone alongside the US Department of Energy and Southern Nuclear. Our priority is to provide safe, reliable and high-performing fuel to support our customers in their long-term operational needs. LEU+ fuel is a perfect example of how we can help reduce the number of outages in nuclear power plants."

Pete Sena, Southern Nuclear Chairman, President and CEO said: "This achievement is a significant step forward for not only the resiliency of the entire US operating fleet, but future nuclear technologies. Our goal is to operate our units for longer periods with higher output, and with higher enriched fuel, we’re even better positioned to meet the growing energy demands of the state of Georgia."

The lead test assemblies will undergo testing for four and a half years at Plant Vogtle. The fuel will be examined after each fuel cycle.

TVA to submit SMR construction permit application
Thursday, 17 April 2025
The Tennessee Valley Authority intends to submit the Construction Permit Application for the Clinch River small modular reactor to the US regulator by June.


TVA has picked out the location for the first SMR at Clinch River (Image: TVA/X)

"The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) intends to submit a CPA to license construction of a GE-Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) at TVA's Clinch River Nuclear Site (CRN Site)," the authority said in a Notification of Intent to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). According to the notification, it plans to submit the first part of the application, including the Clinch River Nuclear Site Environmental Report, this month and the remainder "by June 2025".

The Construction Permit Application - or CPA - is essentially the blueprint for the plant's design and safety systems. NRC approval must be granted before construction can begin.
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US uranium concentrate production in 2024 reaches highest levels since 2018
This surge was primarily driven by two in-situ recovery facilities in Texas and Wyoming, alongside the White Mesa Mill in Utah.

April 3, 2025

US uranium concentrate production reached a six-year high in 2024, surpassing levels not seen since 2018, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) quarterly Domestic Uranium Production Report.

This surge was primarily driven by two in-situ recovery facilities in Texas and Wyoming, alongside the White Mesa Mill in Utah, the only operational uranium mill in the US.

Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Mill is capable of producing not only uranium but also rare earth minerals and vanadium. The company’s recent annual financial disclosure indicates a strategic focus on uranium production for 2025.

In the fourth quarter of 2024 (Q4 2024), uranium concentrate production in the US reached a total of 375,401lb, more than three-times the production of 121,296lb recorded in Q3.

This uranium output was generated at seven facilities: four in Wyoming, including the Nichols Ranch ISR Project, Lost Creek Project, Ross CPP and Smith Ranch-Highland Operation; two in Texas, including the Alta Mesa Project and Rosita; and one in Utah, the White Mesa Mill.

Uranium concentrate is a key material for nuclear reactors and certain medical applications.

The increased demand for electricity in the US, fuelled by data centres, local manufacturing and the electrification of transport and buildings, has reignited interest in nuclear energy.

Efforts are under way to restart two completely shut-down nuclear reactors, including one at the historic Three Mile Island site, reported Reuters.

In response, the federal government has awarded contracts to six companies for the production of uranium fuel.

In contrast, the US uranium market is slowing as nuclear power companies postpone purchases and new contracts amid President Trump’s tariff threats.

Application lodged for construction of Texas SMR plant

Monday, 31 March 2025

Industrial giant Dow and X-Energy Reactor Company have submitted a construction licence application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the proposed advanced nuclear project at Dow's Seadrift site in Texas.
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Milestone for Wyoming uranium operation

20 February 2025

Uranium Energy Corp's Irigaray Central Processing Plant has produced its first dried and drummed uranium concentrates since the resumption of in-situ recovery operations at the company's Christensen Ranch project.
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Wyoming uranium project returns to production
Production operations at the Lance project have officially commenced after a five-year hiatus, with the first dry yellowcake product expected in March.

20 December 2024


The Lance Central Processing Plant (Image: Peninsula Energy)

Operations restarted within selected areas of Mine Unit 1 at the in-situ leach - also known as in-situ recovery - project on 18 December. The project is owned by Australia-based owner Peninsula Energy Ltd. Strata Energy Inc is the company's 100%-owned US subsidiary.

Since Lance last produced uranium commercially in 2019, it has transitioned to low-pH operations. In September last year, Peninsula decided to bring forward plans for a central resin processing plant at Lance after a toll-milling agreement to process loaded resins from the operation at Uranium Energy Corp's Irigaray central processing plant fell through. When complete, the process plant will be able to produce up to 2 million pounds U3O8 (76,929 tU) of dry yellowcake product per year.

The production stream from Mine Unit 1 is being routed to the rebuilt Phase 1 satellite plant ion exchange system for uranium capture, and the captured uranium will be stored on the ion exchange resin until the second phase of the new on-site recovery plant is completed in early 2025, the company said. It expects the resin elution and precipitation circuits in the Phase 2 plant area to be completed by mid-January, when first elutions and yellowcake precipitation can begin. The completed construction of the yellowcake filtration and drying circuits are currently scheduled for February, which would lead to production of the first dry yellowcake product by early March.


The processing plant interior (Image: Peninsula Energy)

"This is a very exciting moment for the team and our shareholders to have finally pressed the button on starting production," Peninsula Managing Director and CEO Yayne Heili said, adding that the milestone had been "years in the making, a lot of hard work, and with a fair share of challenges".

"Importantly, Peninsula is now North America's newest fully independent uranium producer. We have restarted Lance at an opportune time, with the long-term fundamentals and demand for uranium incredibly strong, as nuclear energy grows into the leading and most reliable clean energy solution," he said.

US offers six companies contracts to make uranium fuel for nuclear plants

Reuters | December 10, 2024

The US Energy Department said on Tuesday it is offering initial contracts to six companies to produce domestic uranium fuel for conventional nuclear plants to generate electricity.


The department is trying to kick-start a domestic uranium fuel supply chain to reduce dependence on Russia, from which US reactors get about 25% of their enriched uranium in recent years. The United States put a ban on the imports from Russia as part of a package of sanctions on Moscow over its full scale invasion of Ukraine. The ban allows waivers until 2028.

The US is investigating uranium imports to see if China is helping Russia circumvent the ban.

“These contracts generated from this action will help spur the safe and responsible build-out of uranium enrichment capacity in the United States,” said Michael Goff, principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy.

The following companies won contracts: Centrus’s American Centrifuge Operating; General Matter; Global Laser Enrichment; Urenco’s Louisiana Energy Services; Laser Isotope Separation Technologies and Orano Federal Services.

Four of those companies got initial US contracts in October to produce a more enriched fuel called high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, to be used in smaller reactors that are not yet commercial.

Conventional uranium fuel is up to 5% enriched while HALEU is up to 20% enriched.

The contracts at the start are for a minimum of $2 million. They will last for up to 10 years with $2.7 billion available for the program.

Centrus to restart centrifuge manufacturing, expand capacity

21 November 2024

Centrus Energy Corp is to resume centrifuge manufacturing activities and expand capacity at its facility in Tennessee as well as investing an additional USD60 million over the next 18 months for the effort to support a potential large-scale expansion of uranium enrichment at its American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.


Centrus's centrifuges (Image: Centrus)

Such a large-scale expansion would require a multi-billion dollar public and private investment, the company said. It has recently secured more than USD2 billion in contingent purchase commitments from customers to support future production of low-enriched uranium (LEU), as well as two awards from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to support the enrichment and deconversion of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) - uranium enriched to contain between 5% and 20% uranium-235 that will be used by many advanced reactors.

Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler said this latest investment "will jump-start what we hope will be a multi-billion dollar public and private commitment to re-establishing America's uranium enrichment capacity at scale while reducing our dependence on foreign nations".

"The all-American solution we are offering represents the best path forward to ensure a reliable fuel supply for today's reactors, support the deployment of next generation reactors, and meet America's enduring national security needs for enriched uranium. Most importantly, it puts us in position to execute an expansion quickly," he said.

"We have always said that restoring US enrichment capacity at scale requires a public-private partnership, including a robust federal investment alongside customer offtake commitments and private capital. This additional investment by Centrus reflects our continued willingness to step up to the plate in such a partnership."

Centrus's American Centrifuge technology is exclusively manufactured at its Technology and Manufacturing Center in Oak Ridge, supported by a domestic supply chain of 14 major suppliers and dozens of smaller suppliers.

For some years the USA has relied on imported material rather than domestic uranium enrichment capacity: currently, the only operating commercial uranium enrichment capacity in the USA is the Urenco USA (UUSA) plant at Eunice in New Mexico, which uses a European centrifuge design that is exclusively manufactured in the Netherlands and is currently being expanded. French company Orano is also looking to build a new centrifuge uranium enrichment facility, for which it has selected a preferred site in Oak Ridge.

But the US administration has been taking steps to lessen US reliance on overseas suppliers, particularly Russia, on which the USA had been relying for a sizeable portion of its enriched uranium requirements: 27% of the uranium enrichment services purchased by US nuclear plant operators came from Russia, more than any other foreign supplier.

A prohibition on Russian LEU imports has been in place since August. Centrus had obtained a waiver allowing it to import low-enriched uranium from Russia for delivery to US customers in 2024 and 2025, but the Russian government has now placed its own ban on exports of LEU to the USA. Russian government-owned company Tenex - Centrus's largest supplier of LEU for delivery to its US and international customers - has said it will seek the necessary export licences to meet its obligations, but Centrus said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that its ability to meet its own delivery obligations will be affected if Tenex cannot obtain the licences.

Centrus is competing for more than USD3.4 billion of DOE funding to jumpstart domestic nuclear fuel production. As well as the recent award of USD2 million for domestic HALEU production, the company, via its American Centrifuge Operating subsidiary, is one of several selected under a separate solicitation aimed at HALEU deconversion. A third solicitation, aimed at US production of LEU for existing reactors, has not yet been awarded.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has voted to issue construction permits to Kairos Power for the Hermes 2 Demonstration Plant.



The permits will authorise Kairos to build a facility with two 35 MWt molten salt-cooled reactors that would also include a shared power generation system.

Kairos' Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor became the first US Gen IV reactor to receive a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) construction permit in December 2023, and now Hermes 2 becomes the first electricity-producing Gen IV plant to be approved for construction in the USA, Kairos said.

Hermes 2 is intended to provide operational data to support the development of a larger version for commercial electricity production. Kairos submitted its application to build Hermes 2 in July 2023, and the NRC issued its final safety evaluation for the permits in July this year, and the final environmental assessment for site in August.

"While keeping safety at the forefront, the permitting process was quite efficient, and we issued these permits in less than 18 months," said NRC Chair Christopher Hanson "This shows we can rapidly apply relevant conclusions from earlier reviews to promptly reach decisions on new reactors."

Following a new, streamlined mandatory hearing process conducted via written documents, the NRC said it has authorised the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation to issue the permits, having found the review by NRC staff of the Hermes 2 application "adequate to make the necessary regulatory safety and environmental findings". The permits are expected to be issued in the near future.

"The Commission's approval of the Hermes 2 construction permits marks an important step toward delivering clean electricity from advanced reactors to support decarbonisation," Kairos CEO and co-founder Mike Laufer said. "We are proud to lead the industry in advanced reactor licensing and look forward to continued collaboration with the NRC as we chart a path forward with future applications."

Hermes 2 plant will be built on land adjacent to the Hermes reactor, which is currently under construction. Kairos Power must apply for and obtain an operating licence from the NRC before the plant can start up.