by Timothy Gardner and Benjamin Mallet

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) – Orano will build a uranium enrichment site in Tennessee, a project estimated at several billion dollars, the U.S. government authorities and officials from the French nuclear fuel specialist announced on Wednesday.

The move comes after President Joe Biden signed legislation that aims to end the United States’ dependence on Russian production, which has been the target of a series of sanctions since it invaded Ukrainian territory.

Officials say the project is expected to create more than 300 jobs in Tennessee.

Orano indicated at the end of March that it was studying the possibility of building a uranium enrichment plant in the United States.

The former Areva had already considered a project of this type at the end of the 2000s before suspending it due to overcapacity following the Fukushima accident in 2011.

Its CEO, Nicolas Maes, however specified at the end of July during the presentation of Orano’s half-yearly results that the group was “not at all” at the stage of a final investment decision in a new project, which could give it “a very significant industrial base in the United States”.

Orano also validated in October 2023 a project to increase the uranium enrichment capacity of its Georges Besse 2 plant in Tricastin (Drôme and Vaucluse), in particular to meet the demand of its American customers.

The company, 90% owned by the French state, justifies this project by the risk of a total or partial halt in the supply by Rosatom of enriched uranium used in Western nuclear power plants, of which the Russian company supplies 30%.

Russia accounts for 20% of the enriched uranium used by the United States, the world’s largest producer of nuclear-powered electricity, although this dependence is limited by an import cap that predates the invasion of Ukraine.

Orano claims 12% of the world’s uranium enrichment capacity, compared to 43% for Rosatom and 31% for the European group Urenco.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington and Benjamin Mallet in Paris; by Nicolas Delame, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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