Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) has announced the completion of a large-scale enrichment demonstration testing campaign at its Test Loop facility in Wilmington, North Carolina. GLE has collected extensive performance data providing confidence that its laser-based uranium enrichment process can be commercially deployed.
GLE began the large-scale demonstration testing of the SILEX (Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation) enrichment process in May and will continue its demonstration programme for the rest of the year. This will produce hundreds of kilograms of low enriched uranium (LEU), while continuing to build a domestic manufacturing base and supply chain to support deployment of US domestic enrichment capacity.
GLE is a joint venture of Australian company Silex Systems (51%) and Cameco Corporation (49%). It is the exclusive global licensee of the SILEX laser-based uranium enrichment technology developed by Silex Systems. Earlier this year, it submitted an application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF) in Kentucky, where it plans to deploy the technology commercially by re-enriching depleted uranium tails from legacy Department of Energy (DOE) gaseous diffusion plant operations.
The project is based on a 2016 long-term agreement for the sale to GLE of some 200,000 tonnes from DOE’s depleted uranium hexafluoride inventory, from which PLEF is expected to produce up to 6m SWU of LEU annually, delivering a domestic, single-site solution for uranium, conversion and enrichment.
“We believe the enrichment activities conducted over the past five months position GLE to be the next American uranium enrichment solution,” said GLE CEO Stephen Long. He added that 20% of US electricity supply comes from nuclear energy, “and GLE is expected to allow America to end its dangerous dependency on a fragile, foreign government-owned uranium fuel supply chain”.
GLE said its commercial deployment is backed by over $550m in engineering, design, manufacturing, and licensing investments to date across North Carolina and Kentucky. The PLEF in Kentucky is the only planned new enrichment facility currently under licence application review by NRC.
Unlike conventional centrifuge methods of enrichment that rely on mass differences between isotopes, laser-based systems use specialised lasers calibrated to specific wavelengths that selectively target uranium-235 atoms, separating them from the more abundant uranium-238 with unprecedented precision. This offers several advantages over traditional methods: greater energy efficiency with lower power consumption; a smaller physical footprint for processing facilities; more precise targeting of specific isotopes; and reduced environmental impact through streamlined processing.
Based on current projections, PLEF could begin commercial operations around 2030, with potential for acceleration depending on regulatory approvals and construction timelines. The successful technology demonstration represents a significant step toward this timeline.
