US-based laser enrichment technology start-up LIS (Laser Isotope Separation) Technologies (LIST) has announced plans to invest $1.38bn in a commercial scale laser-based uranium enrichment facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The enrichment plant will be built on the footprint of the historic K-25 Uranium Enrichment site, where the company has acquired the 206-acre Duct Island (now renamed LIST Island) for $8m. This came after LIST raised $17m in an oversubscribed funding round, bringing total capital raised to around $64m.
The K-25 facility was a gaseous diffusion enrichment plant built to enrich uranium for the first atomic bombs. After World War II, the K-25 complex continued producing enriched uranium for defence and commercial nuclear power purposes until it ceased operations in 1985 and was permanently shut down in 1987. Due to environmental hazards and structural deterioration, the original K-25 building was demolished in 2013, and cleanup was completed by 2020. The site is now known as the East Tennessee Technology Park and is part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
“Choosing this community for our commercial operations is both strategically and personally meaningful,” said Dr Jeff Eerkens, Co-Founder of LIS Technologies. “As a child, my life was saved during World War II while I was held in a Japanese internment camp in Indonesia. Oak Ridge’s K-25 facility helped produce the enriched uranium that brought the war to an end. Returning to Oak Ridge decades later with a peaceful, commercial laser enrichment technology is a powerful full-circle moment.”
LIST, founded in 2023, is headquartered in the renovated K-1330 building at the K-25 site, where its state-of-the-art test facility is located. In December 2025, LIS Technologies received a Radioactive Material Licence from the State of Tennessee, which allowed it to begin operations involving uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) feedstock for testing and optimising its laser enrichment technology.
The company employs a patented process known as CRISLA (Chemical Reaction by Isotope Selective Laser Activation), invented by Dr Eerkens, which uses infrared lasers to selectively excite molecules of specific isotopes for separation.
LIST plans to break ground and begin site preparation and construction of its commercial-scale facility in 2026, subject to further licensing and permitting. Initial commercial operations are targeted to begin before 2030.
Selecting Oak Ridge is both a strategic and symbolic decision for LIS Technologies,” said Jay Yu, LIST Executive Chairman and CEO. “This community represents the foundation of America’s enrichment capability and the future of its clean energy and national security mission. Our laser enrichment technology fundamentally changes the economics of enrichment, enabling faster deployment, lower capital intensity, and long-term cost advantages. With our NRC licensing process underway, we are moving deliberately toward construction readiness and positioning the United States to lead the world in commercial laser enrichment.”
In December 2024, LIST was selected as one of six domestic companies to participate in the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) Enrichment Acquisition Program. This initiative allocated up to $3.4bn overall, with contracts lasting up to 10 years. However, the companies involved in this programme did not immediately receive DOE awards but they were allowed to begin a bidding process for future awards.
Earlier in January DOE announced that it would award $900m each to American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter and Orano Federal Services to expand US domestic enrichment capacity. DOE also awarded an additional $28m to Global Laser Enrichment but LIST was not selected for an award.
LIS Technologies is the eighth company to locate in Tennessee for its commercial operations utilising the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development’s (TNECD’s) Nuclear Energy Fund (NEF). LIST’s project will be the third largest nuclear-related investment since the creation of the NEF. The $50m fund was in Governor Bill Lee’s recommended 2023-2024 budget and approved by the Tennessee General Assembly. An additional $10m was allocated and approved in the state’s budget during both the 2024 and 2025 legislative sessions, bringing the fund’s total to $70m since its inception.
Deputy Governor and TNECD Commissioner Stuart C McWhorter noted: “LIS Technologies’ nearly $1.4bn investment is a major win for Tennessee, and Oak Ridge is uniquely positioned to support this project’s success.” Governor Lee said: “By creating the Nuclear Energy Fund, we have uniquely positioned our state at the forefront of cutting-edge R&D, and I look forward to the positive impact this project will have for Tennesseans across our state.” Other companies that have moved to Tennessee to develop their projects include Radiant Industries, BWXT Enrichment Operations, Oklo, Orano USA, Type One Energy, Master Machine, and Centrus Energy Corp.
