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Urenco Group

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Urenco Group Ltd
TypeLimited company
IndustryNuclear
Founded1970
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
ProductsFuel
ServicesUranium enrichment
Revenue1,958,000,000 (2018) Edit this on Wikidata
1,200,000,000 (2018) Edit this on Wikidata
511,000,000 (2018) Edit this on Wikidata
Owner
Websitewww.urenco.com Edit this at Wikidata

The Urenco Group (urenco) is a multi-national limited company with shares and stocks majority owned by the governments of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom with minority shares controlled by German electric utilities E.ON and RWE. The Urenco Group operates several uranium enrichment plants in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.[1] It supplies nuclear power stations in about 15 countries, and states that it had a 29% share of the global market for enrichment services in 2011.[2][3] Urenco uses centrifuge enrichment technology.[4]

Urenco, headquartered in London England,[5] is owned one third by the UK government, one third by the Dutch government, and the final third equally by two major German utilities, E.ON and RWE.[6]

In the 1990s, Urenco diversified its activities and established Urenco Isotopes in the Netherlands to produce stable isotopes for medical, industrial and research applications.[7][8]

Group structure

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Ownership

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Urenco is owned in three equal parts by Ultra-Centrifuge Nederland NV (owned by the Government of the Netherlands), Uranit GmbH (owned equally by German energy companies E.ON and RWE) [9] and Enrichment Holdings Ltd (owned by the Government of the United Kingdom and managed by UK Government Investments).[10] The company was set up in 1971, pursuant to the Treaty of Almelo (named after the city in the Netherlands where the company originated), which restricts the sale of ownership stakes.[11][12]

Subsidiaries

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October 1984, Pieter van Vollenhoven visits the tanks with Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) at Urenco in the Netherlands

Urenco Deutschland, Urenco UK, and Urenco Nederland are 100% subsidiaries of Urenco Enrichment Company. They operate enrichment plants at Gronau, Westphalia, Germany, at the Capenhurst nuclear site, England, and at Almelo, Netherlands.[4]

In the United States, where Urenco is represented by its marketing subsidiary Urenco, Inc., the Urenco USA facility became operational in spring 2010. Called the National Enrichment Facility, located near Eunice, New Mexico, and is operated by Urenco's subsidiary Louisiana Energy Services (LES).[13]

Urenco also owns a 50% interest in Enrichment Technology Company [nl] (ETC), a company jointly owned with Areva. ETC provides enrichment-plant design services and gas-centrifuge technology for enrichment plants through its subsidiaries in the UK (Capenhurst), Germany (Gronau and Jülich), the Netherlands (Almelo), France (Tricastin) and the U.S. (Eunice, New Mexico).[13][14]

Expansion

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As of 2026, Urenco is planning to expand capacity at its sites substantially, in response to increased global interest in constructing new nuclear, life extensions for existing nuclear reactors and US and European nuclear utilities diversifying away from dependence on Russian nuclear fuel following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Urenco plans to add 1.5 million SWU per year capacity to its Almelo facility by 2030[15] and 2.8 million SWU per year capacity to its US facility by 2036.[16] Urenco has historically produce low-enriched uranium (LEU) enriched up to 5% U-235. In 2025 it began producing LEU+, enriched up to 10% U-235.

Urenco plans to construct a high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment facility at its Capenhurst, UK site called the Urenco UK Advanced Fuels Facility. This facility will produce uranium enriched up to 20% U-235, which some Generation IV reactors need for fuel. In 2025 Urenco signed the first commercial contract to supply HALEU to Generation IV reactors.[17] Urenco plans to begin construction on its HALEU facility in 2028, and the facility will have initial capacity to produce up to 27 tons of HALEU per year, with the option to double capacity dependent on demand.[18] The UK government provided £196 million in funding for the Advanced Fuels Facility.

In 2025, infrastructure company Costain Group was contracted to upgrade and deliver new infrastructure at the Capenhurst plant. The company is conducting a front-end engineering and design study for the Advanced Fuels Facility that it expects to complete in 2027. The Advanced Fuels Facility will be Europe's first HALEU enrichment facility.[19]

Decommissioning

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Urenco Netherlands BV has dismantled enrichment plant SP3, after the decommissioning of SP1 and SP2 in the 1980s and 1990s. Information about decommissioning cost calculations for Urenco facilities is not accessible.[20][21]

Controversies

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Abdul Qadeer Khan

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In the 1970s, Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani metallurgist employed by a subcontractor for Urenco in Almelo, acquired and transferred classified engineering drawings of Urenco's gas centrifuges to Pakistan, bypassing both the company's administration and the Dutch government. These stolen blueprints proved critical to Pakistan's nuclear ambitions. In late 1974, Khan joined Project-706, a clandestine uranium enrichment programme launched by Munir Ahmad Khan under the direction of the then-Pakistani Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Khan subsequently assumed control of the project, establishing a highly advanced facility near Islamabad that successfully produced highly enriched uranium (HEU) within a brief period.[22]

Namibia

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In May 1985, the United Nations Council for Namibia (UNCN) initiated legal action against the uranium enrichment consortium Urenco for breaching UNCN Decree No. 1. This decree prohibited the exploitation of Namibia's natural resources while the territory was under the administration of South Africa under apartheid. The litigation arose from Urenco's importation of uranium ore from the Rössing mine in Namibia. Although the case was expected to be heard by the end of 1985, proceedings were delayed when Urenco argued that, despite having enriched Namibian uranium since 1980, it was impossible to determine the precise origin of specific consignments. When the case finally reached the court in July 1986, the Dutch government supported Urenco's position, claiming to have been unaware of where the uranium had originally been mined.[23]

Uranium tails contracts with Russia

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According to Greenpeace, Urenco maintains a contract with Russia for the disposal of radioactive waste. However, industry sources note that these contracts do not involve waste disposal, but rather the sale of depleted uranium tails, which are re-enriched to the equivalent of natural uranium.[24][25] Under the terms of the agreement, Russia, as the enricher, retains ownership of any radioactive waste generated during the process. In March 2009, public protests occurred regarding the transport of a record-volume shipment of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) from Germany to the Siberian town of Seversk.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ↑ Urenco UK
  2. ↑ "Global Operations". Urenco. Archived from the original on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "Full Year 2011 Audited Financial Results". Urenco. Archived from the original on 26 August 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  4. 1 2 Geoffrey Rothwell (2009). "Market Power in Uranium Enrichment" (PDF). Science & Global Security. 17 (2–3): 132–154. Bibcode:2009S&GS...17..132R. doi:10.1080/08929880903423586. S2CID 54768819. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  5. ↑ "Global Operations". Urenco. Retrieved 22 October 2025.
  6. ↑ "Nuclear sale set to net billions for UK". The Telegraph. 15 July 2012.
  7. ↑ "Urenco Isotopes". Urenco. Retrieved 19 May 2026.
  8. ↑ "Urenco Isotopes". Urenco Isotopes. Retrieved 19 May 2026.
  9. ↑ "ABC van kernenergie: Ultra-Centrifuge Nederland NV". Archived from the original on 4 March 2008.
  10. ↑ "Advanced fuels announcement". Urenco. 8 May 2024.
  11. ↑ "History". Urenco. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  12. ↑ "Agreement between the Governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic regarding Collaboration in Centrifuge Technology" (PDF). The Stationery Office. 12 July 2005. Cm 7046. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  13. 1 2 "Company Structure". urenco.com.
  14. ↑ "Managing Urenco's centrifuges". Nuclear Engineering International. 13 August 2025. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  15. ↑ "Further Capacity Expansion At Urenco's Site In The Netherlands". urenco.com. 20 October 2025. Archived from the original on 21 July 2026. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  16. ↑ "Urenco USA Plans Significant Expansion Of U.S. Uranium Enrichment Capacity". urenco.com. 2 June 2026. Archived from the original on 21 July 2026. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  17. ↑ "Urenco And Radiant Unveil HALEU Deal In Week Of US State Visit". urenco.com. 15 September 2025. Archived from the original on 21 July 2026. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  18. ↑ "Urenco Annual report & accounts 2025" (PDF). urenco.com. 2026. Retrieved 18 July 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ↑ "Costain chosen to design first-of-a-kind advanced nuclear fuels facility". costain.com. 13 May 2025. Archived from the original on 21 July 2026. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  20. ↑ "EU Decommission Funds" (PDF). wupperinst.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
  21. ↑ Linklist
  22. ↑ The nuclear Walmart: Transcript - BBC Panorama, 15 November 2006
  23. ↑ "Council for Namibia sues Netherlands over Namibia's natural resources". UN Chronicle. 1987. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  24. ↑ "Rosatom says uranium tail contracts will not be renewed, citing economic infeasibility". bellona.org.
  25. ↑ "World Nuclear Association: Uranium enrichment - section "Enrichment of depleted uranium tails"". world-nuclear.org. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
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