France's Orano aims to enrich uranium in US in early 2030s, says executive

PARIS (Reuters) - French nuclear fuel specialist Orano could begin enriching uranium at a new plant in the United States in the early 2030s, an executive said on Friday, boosting the company's share of the global market as the U.S. weans itself off Russian supplies.

The state-owned company said on Wednesday it would build a new plant in Tennessee, months after the administration of President Joe Biden signed legislation to end U.S. dependence on Russia's Rosatom.

Orano is one of only a handful of companies with fuel enrichment capabilities and demand is growing as new markets look to nuclear power for cleaner energy.

Orano is already planning a 1.7 billion euro ($1.9 billion) expansion of its enrichment plant in southern France, increasing capacity by more than 30%, or 2.5 million Separative Work Units (SWU), partly to meet demand from U.S. clients.

An SWU is a measure of the uranium enrichment process, proportional to the input and mass produced.

Building a facility on U.S. soil will allow the company to tap into up to $2.7 billion of U.S funding for domestic uranium projects, said Francois Lurin, head of the company's chemistry enrichment business.

The company is aiming for several million SWUs at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee plant, said Lurin, but will adapt to customer needs and the required enrichment rates.

The plant could also be equipped to produce HALEU-type fuels that are enriched to higher levels than today's commercial nuclear fuel for the next generation of large and small nuclear reactors, he added.

Investment decisions on Oak Ridge should start next year, added Lurin, once the company gets long-term commitments from customers.

Orano also needs to secure a licence from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) along with federal support.

"If everything goes according to plan, if we start the work, if we obtain financial support from the American government and firm orders from customers and if the exchanges with the NRC go well, we can imagine production in the early 2030s," he said.

($1 = 0.9010 euros)

(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet; Writing by Forrest Crellin; Editing by Mark Potter)