General Matter Paducah Enrichment Application Accepted, NRC Eyes April 2028

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) accepted General Matter's licence application for its Paducah, Kentucky, uranium enrichment plant for detailed review on Oct. 29, and set April 2028 as its estimated completion date.

The acceptance letter, signed by Michael McCoppin of the NRC's fuel facility licensing branch, puts the application on Docket 07007040. Staff finished the acceptance check in about half the time they usually allow, the letter says, and credit the filing's quality and the company's engagement before it applied. General Matter submitted the application on Sept. 27. The NRC capped its review fees at $3.96 million.

Acceptance means the NRC will review the application; it is not a licence. That gap matters for reactor buyers. Many advanced designs need high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), enriched to between 5% and 20% U-235, and a new plant needs its NRC licence, and for HALEU an amendment, before it produces that fuel. This first application covers only low-enriched uranium (LEU) for today's reactors, according to Heatmap. General Matter says it plans a licence amendment for HALEU in 2027.

Why Enrichment Licences Gate Reactor Fuel

Most plants separate uranium isotopes with gas centrifuges that spin uranium gas so the heavier U-238 drifts outward, Heatmap explains. General Matter is taking two licensing steps. The application the NRC accepted covers LEU, and a HALEU amendment is planned for 2027, the company says. The NRC estimates April 2028 for its final reports on the first step, so a reactor developer counting on this plant's HALEU faces both steps before any fuel is sold.

NRC Review Timeline to April 2028

The letter sets out the NRC's estimates. A draft safety and safeguards evaluation report and draft requests for additional information are due in April 2027. An environmental impact statement goes out for public comment in August 2027. The final safety evaluation and environmental statement are due in April 2028. The standard review takes 18 months, and staff say they cannot commit to a shorter one because of workload, though they will look for ways to speed up parts of it. The schedule assumes one round of formal questions per technical area and prompt answers.

The company's own dates run earlier. The company expects NRC approval in 2027, Heatmap reported. Chief executive Scott Nolan told public radio station WKMS that construction would start in 2027, with installation and commissioning in 2028 and full operation in 2029. Those are company targets. The company's plan assumes an earlier decision than the NRC's April 2028 estimate, which staff say they cannot shorten.

Paducah Enrichment Site, Neighbors and DOE Funding

General Matter's site is a 100-acre parcel leased from the Department of Energy (DOE) at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site. WKMS puts the planned cost of the plant at $1.5 billion; General Matter's post gives no figure. It will share a fence line with Global Laser Enrichment's planned plant, which is further along: as Voltgrid reported on Oct. 27, the NRC's final environmental review recommends a licence for that plant, for fuel up to 8% U-235; Silex's chief executive told World Nuclear News the plant would make LEU up to 5% and LEU+ up to 8%. That licence has not been issued. In Ohio, Centrus shipped its first new Piketon centrifuge on Oct. 29 and targets new capacity in 2029.

DOE announced in January a $900 million task order for General Matter to create domestic HALEU enrichment capacity, WKMS reports; the application the NRC accepted covers LEU only. The site will also sit beside a $100 billion Brookfield data center powered by a NextEra Energy gas plant, according to WKMS.

What Is Still Unconfirmed

General Matter has not said which enrichment method it uses or how much separative work (SWU) the plant would produce a year. Nolan told WKMS the company will describe its technology next year. No fuel customers are named in the sources. The NRC's enclosure of review observations is proprietary. The HALEU amendment has not been filed. The next milestone on the NRC's published estimate is the draft safety and safeguards evaluation report and draft requests for additional information, estimated for April 2027.