Westinghouse to fabricate LEU+ fuel at expanded S.C. facility

Westinghouse has announced that it will invest $1 billion to construct a new plant to fabricate fuel with uranium enriched up to 8 percent U-235 on the site of its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) in Hopkins, S.C.

Westinghouse has completed pre-construction preparation work on the site and, since 2024, has engaged with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ahead of submitting an application to amend its existing facility license. It aims to produce 600 metric tons uranium of fuel each year beginning in 2030.

Advances in fuel technology: Westinghouse's existing CFFF is a licensed Category III fuel fabrication facility, allowed to process low-enriched uranium fuel enriched to less than 10 percent uranium-235.

LEU for light water reactors typically contains U-235 at levels approaching 5 percent. LEU+, in contrast, contains higher amounts of U-235, from 5 to 10 percent. In its NRC pre-application documents and press release materials, Westinghouse says that its new facility will produce LEU+ enriched to up to 8 percent U-235, within the limit for Category III facilities.

Westinghouse is seeking an amendment to its current license, noting that its proposed LEU+ facility will use different technology and a different plant configuration compared to its existing LEU plant, which it claims will lead to more efficient operations and more opportunities for automation. Among the technology it plans to incorporate is its ammonia-free "dry" process for changing uranium hexafluoride into uranium dioxide powder, which it then presses into fuel pellets; Westinghouse currently uses this process at its fuel fabrication facility in the United Kingdom.

Additionally, in the documents it submitted to the NRC, Westinghouse notes that the LEU+ it fabricates in South Carolina will use the company's proprietary Advanced Doped Pellet Technology (ADOPT). The technology incorporates chromia (Cr₂O₃) and alumina (Al₂O₃) into the fuel pellets to create what Westinghouse calls "high energy fuel" that demonstrates higher thermal stability and greater resistance to corrosion. Previously, Westinghouse produced ADOPT fuel only at its United Kingdom facility.

Westinghouse intends for its LEU+ fuel to be used in existing pressurized water reactors. It states that unlike reactors fueled with conventional LEU, which typically require refueling every 18 months, LEU+ fuel potentially can allow reactors to refuel every 24 months, allowing longer stretches of continuous operation.

Westinghouse expects that some of its LEU fuel customers will shift to LEU+ fuel once operations at the new facility begin. The announcement of the $1 billion investment comes days after the NRC approved Westinghouse's application to renew and update the design certification of its AP1000 reactor, which it seeks to deploy broadly both domestically and internationally.

Licensing and timing: Westinghouse says that it has completed foundation planning and subsurface investigations at the CFFF site to prepare for the LEU+ facility. It also has conducted pre-application meetings with the NRC to cover management measures, an integrated safety analysis, a criticality safety program, and environmental review activities; the most recent meeting, held on October 19, discussed instrumentation and control design for the facility.

Although Westinghouse plans for the facility to come on line by 2030, it has not yet officially applied to the NRC to amend its operating license.

Westinghouse has stated that it was the first company to deploy LEU+ fuel in the United States with the insertion of lead test assemblies into Southern Nuclear's Vogtle-2 in April 2025. However, since then, another fuel fabrication company operating in the United States, Framatome, has received NRC approval to fabricate LEU+ fuels at its own facility in Richland, Wash.

Framatome initially announced the approval of its license amendment in May 2026; in July it followed with news that the NRC had granted a second license amendment request specifically for production of LEU+ fuel enriched up to 10 percent. Framatome expects to begin LEU+ fuel fabrication in 2027.