General Matter’s NRC license application materials publicly available

Efforts to revive domestic uranium enrichment at the site of the former Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., are continuing: On September 28, General Matter announced that it had applied for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to begin facility construction on the site. Several documents related to the application, including an environmental report, became accessible to the public on October 5 in NRC's ADAMS document repository.

If approved, the application would allow General Matter to engage in activities beyond the preconstruction site preparation work that the NRC deemed acceptable early in 2026.

It also would mark progress for a second enrichment company planning operations at Paducah. Global Laser Enrichment applied for a license for its proposed Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility in July 2025 and received a $28.5 million task order to construct facilities for low-enriched uranium enrichment in January of this year.

Both companies seek to begin enriched uranium production by 2030.

Basic takes from the application material: In August 2025, General Matter revealed that it had signed a lease with the Department of Energy for the use of 100 acres of land on the former Gaseous Diffusion Plant site.

According to the environmental report in the company's recent license application, the General Matter Paducah Enrichment Facility, or GMPEF, would comprise two areas where enrichment would take place (Production Halls A and B) in addition to buildings to house administrative and service activities.

The report also says that General Matter seeks to produce both LEU and high-assay low-enriched uranium at the site using depleted, natural, and enriched uranium hexafluoride (UF6). This would include 7,600 cylinders of depleted UF6 included in the lease and would allow the company both to fulfill a January 2026 contract for HALEU worth $900 million from the DOE and to pursue a contract to supply LEU that the DOE announced in December 2024.

However, redacted from the public-facing version of the report is any information regarding the technology that General Matter plans to use to enrich uranium. The company has identified the information as a "trade secret," although the report notes that "there are currently three types of enrichment technologies: gaseous diffusion, gas centrifuge, and laser enrichment," despite gaseous diffusion not being employed worldwide since 2013.

A recent profile on the company in Politico suggested that General Matter will divulge the basic details of its technology "in the coming months." In response to questions from Nuclear News, Avery Jaffe, communications director for General Matter, said, "As Scott [Nolan, General Matter's CEO] likes to say, we are not doing any new science. We are solving a very hard engineering problem."

The cover letter to its application states that General Matter is seeking an expedited review of its application materials. In the letter, the company expresses belief that previous assessments of the Paducah site as well as elements of its GMPEF facility design and proprietary processes all would enable a quick review. The company also explains its request in the environmental report by noting that "until recently, Russia supplied approximately 20 percent of U.S. enrichment requirements," and that a complete ban on Russian imports, including enriched uranium, will take effect in 2028.

An expedited review would be facilitated by revisions to the NRC's licensing regulations that were proposed this past July but have yet to be approved as of this writing.

Building on GLE's work: While GLE, General Matter's neighbor at the Paducah site, also intends to begin enrichment activities by the end of the decade, it has opted not to produce HALEU for now. Instead, it has chosen to focus on natural-grade uranium production as its contribution to the fuel supply chain.

GLE plans to use a process known as SILEX-separation of isotopes by laser excitation-to enrich uranium, including depleted uranium tails left over from operations at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. However, specific details of GLE's processes remain closely guarded; its publicly available license application materials are heavily redacted.

Regardless of the details of each company's technology, General Matter hopes that GLE's previously completed work at Paducah will benefit its efforts as well. General Matter's license application incorporates parts of both the environmental report and the environmental impact statement that were prepared pursuant to GLE's license application for its Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility. According to General Matter's environmental report, the proximity and similar use of the two sites make GLE's proposed facility a comparable reference-one that General Matter believes can be used in its own application "in keeping with congressional direction and the current administration's push for efficiency."

General Matter's application documents can be accessed through the ADAMS Public Search function on the NRC's website.