His comments were part of the uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel cycle products group’s announcement of a rise in net profit to EUR 248.5 million in 2025, from EUR180.3 million in 2024, and rise in revenue to EUR2.09 billion from EUR1.87 billion.
Urenco Group said the outlook was positive, saying: “Political support for the nuclear industry in Europe and North America is creating more confidence among stakeholders and customers, which is helping to propel our business forward in the fuel supply chain. The resulting additional demand and positive market conditions are enabling new contracts to be signed and the extension of existing ones.”
The company, which is headquartered in the UK and has enrichment facilities in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA, said that the uranium enrichment market remains strong, with SWU spot prices continuing to rise steadily. (SWU stands for Separative Work Unit. It is the standard measure of the effort required to separate U235 and U238. See section on the nuclear fuel cycle below for further explanation).
Urenco said in its annual results that it was “growing its customer base and raising its profile in new markets, including both in new countries and sectors”, adding that having facilities in four countries “ensure we are able to provide a uniquely secure and diverse supply of uranium enrichment services for the civil nuclear industry”.
In his comments, Schucht said: “Within the OECD region, we are proud to have the largest SWU production capacity, and to serve more than 50 customers in over 20 countries. This is the fourth successive year of annual order book growth. Our capacity programme, which will now deliver 2.5 million of new SWU capacity, is progressing well against both time and cost expectations.
“At Capenhurst in the UK, we are building the first commercial high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) facility in Europe, with joint funding from the UK Government. The design phase of the project is progressing and construction will commence in 2028, with the first production of HALEU expected in the early 2030s. The facility will have the potential to produce up to 27 tonnes of HALEU per year, which is enough to supply energy to the equivalent of more than nine million homes. Its design and modular construction approach mean there will be the potential to further expand its capacity in the future.”
Urenco is one-third owned by the UK government, one-third by the Dutch government and one-third by the German utilities RWE and E.ON SE.
The nuclear fuel cycle
Unenriched, or natural, uranium contains about 0.7% of the fissile uranium-235 (U-235) isotope. (“Fissile” means it’s capable of undergoing the fission process by which energy is produced in a nuclear reactor). The rest is the non-fissile uranium-238 isotope. Most nuclear reactors need fuel containing between 3.5% and 5% U-235. This is also known as low-enriched uranium, or LEU. Advanced reactor designs that are now being developed – and many small modular reactors – will require higher enrichments still. This material, containing between 5% and 20% U-235, is known as high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. And some reactors – for example the Canadian-designed Candu – use natural uranium as their fuel and don’t require enrichment services.
Enrichment increases the concentration of the fissile isotope by passing the gaseous UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) through gas centrifuges, in which a fast spinning rotor inside a vacuum casing makes use of the very slight difference in mass between the fissile and non-fissile isotopes to separate them. As the rotor spins, the concentration of molecules containing heavier, non-fissile, isotopes near the outer wall of the cylinder increases, with a corresponding increase in the concentration of molecules containing the lighter U-235 isotope towards the centre.
Enriched uranium is then reconverted from the fluoride to the oxide – a powder – for fabrication into nuclear fuel assemblies.
contains more details about the enrichment process and technology.
