US nuclear enrichment start-up General Matter is planning to revive nuclear enrichment at the Department of Energy (DOE) Paducah site in Kentucky. In an email sent to WKMS, General Matter said that the company intends to make a “historic investment in American nuclear infrastructure” by restoring a shuttered facility in Paducah.
The DOE’s Paducah site hosted the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP), constructed in 1952 to produce enriched uranium, initially for nuclear weapons and later for NPP fuel. Commercial enrichment was conducted under lease from 1993 until 2013 when operations ceased, and the gaseous diffusion facilities were transferred to the DOE Environmental Management (EM) programme. EM has conducted extensive cleanup activities at the site since the late 1980s and is currently deactivating the plant facilities with the aim of releasing the site for industrial and community development.
“Seventy-five years ago, the US Atomic Energy Commission selected Paducah to help lead the nation’s original enrichment efforts,” the email said. “We are proud to return to and rebuild this historic site to power a new era of American energy independence.”
According to WKMS, local officials, including Paducah Mayor George Bray, confirmed that General Matter has been in talks to develop this facility in recent months. Recently DOE listed Paducah as one of four sites being considered for “cutting edge data centre and energy generation projects”. Plans are also moving forward to establish the world’s first commercial laser uranium enrichment plant on property adjacent to PGDP. The Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce has secured a DOE grant to commission a study on the site’s re-industrialisation potential.
General Matter is led by former SpaceX employee Scott Nolan, a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund (FF). The company, formed in 2024 in San Francisco, announced itself on X in April as being “incubated within” FF by a team from SpaceX, Tesla, Anduril, the US national labs and the Department of Defense. FF was co-founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, who joined General Matter’s board earlier this year. Thiel is also co-founder of military and surveillance company Palantir.
In December 2024, General Matter was one of six companies added to the DOE’s list of contractors from which they could procure low enriched uranium to incentivise the development of new uranium production capacity in the country.
According to General Matter’s email, a formal announcement event is planned for 5 August in Paducah attended by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, US Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul and Congressman James Comer as well as members of the nuclear industry and local officials.
“I think they are going to release something very quickly and there will be information forthcoming,” Bray said. “From everything I can tell so far, it’s going to be very good for Paducah, but also, these are all two, three, four, five year projects. Because we’re talking about nuclear, there’s a lot of complexities to it.”
According to its website, General Matter has huge ambitions to restore what it sees as the US’s lost leadership in nuclear. Its mission statement says: “Like flight, space travel and computers, nuclear energy was developed here in the US. From reactors to fuel we were once the world leader. But we stopped building reactors. We outsourced fuel production. We became dependent on countries who seek to surpass us. We gave up our lead.”
It continues: “Physics show us the way but bureaucracy blocked it and decades of timidity abandoned it. Human will is clearing the path here in the US once more. We will lead again. Our team shares a rare and specific talent breaking into stagnant sectors and unlocking their potential. While other have shipped products, our team has shipped industries. It’s a new era in American power.” The statement concludes: “America’s potential is written in stone. We turn it into power.”
