Orano USA has submitted its Environmental Report (ER) to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for Project IKE, its planned gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Project development began in September 2024 when the State of Tennessee’s anounced that Orano had selected Oak Ridge as the preferred site for its facility. The project is named with reference to President “Ike” Eisenhower’s 1953 Atoms for Peace address to the United Nations calling for the establishment of a civil nuclear energy industry.
The ER provides an in-depth assessment of potential environmental impacts and demonstrates Orano’s commitment to environmental protection, public health and safety, transparency, and regulatory compliance. Its submission comes after more than a year of comprehensive environmental analysis, technical evaluation, and inter-agency coordination.
The project will now advance to the next phase of NRC review aiming for complete facility licence submission to the NRC later in 2026. Orano noted that the licensing process can last up to three years, though NRC restructuring may shorten that period. Production of low-enriched uranium at the new facility is scheduled to begin in 2031.
Orano has supplied enriched uranium to the US reactor fleet from its facilities in France for more than 40 years. Currently the only commercial operating enrichment facility in the US is Urenco USA’s National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico. In early January, Orano was selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to receive funding of $900m to build an enriched uranium production facility in the USA. The total cost of the project is estimated at nearly $5bn. Project IKE is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs during its initial five-year construction phase and 300 permanent, high-skilled positions during operation.
“With 50 years of safe commercial uranium enrichment operations, including 15 years with gas centrifuges, we have a clear understanding for evaluating our Project IKE development,” said Orano USA CEO Jean-Luc Palayer. “We are pleased to reach this early review stage with the NRC and to submit a detailed and comprehensive Environmental Report addressing the required analyses, including land use, air quality, water quality and use, public and occupational health, and socioeconomics.”
The selected Project IKE site is in Roane County near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on greenfield property currently owned by DOE, which is in the process of being transferred to the City of Oak Ridge’s Industrial Development Board (IDB) for commercial use. Acquisition of the property for Project IKE can only occur after DOE completes the transfer, which is expected to be completed by early 2026.
The DOE-managed part of the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) – approximately 33,000 to 37,000 acres – houses three major, separate operating installations – the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Y-12 (nuclear weapons component production, dismantlement, and the storage of special nuclear materials) and the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), formerly the K-25 uranium enrichment site now undergoing environmental cleanup and being transitioned into a private-sector industrial and technology park.
Project IKE site is located in the northwestern portion of ORR, strategically positioned between the ETTP and Y-12 sites. It is approximately 1.5 miles east of the K-25 area and approximately 5 miles west of the Y-12 Complex. It occupies roughly 920 acres of greenfield land known as Self Sufficiency Parcel 2 (SSP-2).
It is directly opposite the Horizon Center Industrial Park and immediately surrounds the Oak Ridge Enhanced Technology and Training Center (ORETTC) – a joint federal-state facility dedicated to training first responders and security personnel in nuclear and radiological emergency management. ORETTC was built on an 80-acre portion of the larger SSP-2 parcel. The remaining acres surrounding it are the “greenfield” property being transferred for Orano’s use.
Access to the currently undeveloped, forested property is via a gravel road. The property is split into two tracts (Tract 1A and 1B), which are geographically separated by the White Wing Scrap Yard, a 146-acre area retained by DOE, which was previously used as a holding area for radioactive components. Analysis of the stored materials and the surrounding soil is underway and will inform the cleanup and remediation of the area.
The initial facility concept for Project IKE is a footprint of 750,000 square feet, similar to Orano’s enrichment facility in Tricastin, France. Ultimately, the design and capacity of the enrichment facility will depend on customer demand and market needs.
Orano says the Project IKE facility is designed for low-enriched uranium (LEU) up to 10%. However, with appropriate market demand and federal support, a HALEU facility to enrich uranium for certain advanced reactors could be co-located with the LEU facility to achieve cost and process efficiencies. Orano already has licensed HALEU transport systems to securely deliver this fuel to advanced reactor developers.
