Ocean Wall on GLE, ASPI:
US Nuclear: If You Don’t Know, Now You Know
The Hoot this Week: 5th - 9th January 2026
Ocean Wall
Jan 10, 2026
· Paid
Momentum in the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle continues to build into 2026, driven by accelerating federal support for domestic enrichment capacity and growing urgency to secure non-Russian supply chains. Recent Department of Energy (DOE) enrichment awards highlight a clear policy direction: rapidly expand domestic nuclear fuel capacity and capabilities.
The awards break down into three main areas: LEU production, HALEU production, and HALEU technology. In LEU, six companies received small initial task orders (around $2 million each) that position them to compete for future awards, while Orano was the clear primary beneficiary with a $900 million task order to expand LEU capacity over the next decade.
For HALEU production, four companies received similar small initial task orders to establish eligibility for future work, but the major capacity awards went to Centrus (via American Centrifuge Operating) and Peter Thiel-backed General Matter, each receiving $900 million to expand domestic HALEU production. This underscores DOE’s priority on building commercial-scale HALEU supply in the U.S., given its importance for advanced reactors and SMRs.
In addition, a smaller HALEU technology award of roughly $28.5 million was granted to GLE the exclusive licensee of the SILEX laser technology to support enrichment technology development across the fuel cycle. Overall, the structure of the awards shows DOE spreading early-stage optionality across multiple players, while concentrating large capital commitments with a limited number of firms to accelerate near-term domestic LEU and HALEU capacity build-out.
Against this backdrop, the 33% pullback in Silex Systems’ share price appears misplaced. Silex noted in its release that the “significantly higher enrichment efficiency and throughput of the SILEX technology places GLE in a very strong position relative to competitors using second-generation centrifuge technology,” and importantly, GLE and ASPI, with laser enrichment technology, are not competitors in terms of capital intensity, production scale, or cost structure.
In a broader context, fully replacing U.S. imports of Russian enrichment services would require tens of thousands of centrifuges, take several years to construct, and cost billions of US dollars. By contrast, laser enrichment is comparatively capital-light and more scalable, suggesting that a blended approach, combining centrifuge capacity with more advanced technologies, like laser enrichment, is the most likely and pragmatic path toward rebuilding a secure domestic enrichment supply chain.
Time to market will also be a critical factor, and ASPI’s agreements with TerraPower, targeting initial HALEU production from its Pelindaba facility in 2027, position it as a potential near-term supplier aligned with early advanced reactor deployment timelines. It is also worth noting that BWXT is developing its own centrifuge technology under the DUECE program, a government program aimed at rebuilding U.S. centrifuge manufacturing and enrichment capability for defence and naval fuel requirements. While BWXT was not named in the DOE’s latest civil enrichment awards, this does not discount the company from playing a future role in enrichment, as technology developed under DUECE could ultimately be spun out for civil nuclear use, further supporting the view that the long-term enrichment market will be a competitive landscape comprising multiple technologies rather than a single dominant solution.
By expanding multiple pathways for domestic enrichment, the announcement supports the broader U.S. enrichment ecosystem, a sector long dependent on Russian supply, and reinforces the government’s commitment to a comprehensive nuclear energy strategy.
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