General Matter, a nuclear energy firm, has signed a lease with the U.S. Energy Dept. to build a $1.5-billion commercial uranium enrichment facility at the former federal Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., to expand U.S. nuclear power.
Backed by tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, the San Francisco company has provided few details about the planned facility on a 100-acre parcel at the site where defense-related uranium enrichment occurred for more than 60 years. Construction is set to begin next year, with enrichment operations planned for 2034 using what the firm calls “a novel, scalable, cost-competitive technology.” No contractor selection has been announced. General Matter is one of four companies the government chose in 2024 to provide enrichment services to develop a domestic supply of high-assay, low-enriched uranium for power critical to reshored advanced manufacturing and data centers, says DOE. The lease also provides General Matter with at least 7,600 cylinders of existing uranium hexafluoride to supply fuel for future re-enrichment operations. Reprocessing it will save about $800 million in disposal costs, it says.
The lease is part of a federally owned 3,556-acre tract near Paducah selected by the federal government in 1950 for a gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment plant designed to support military reactors and weapons. It was the nation’s only operating uranium enrichment facility when it was closed in 2013, having been under lease since 1993 to produce material for commercial nuclear reactors. Since then, DOE has overseen efforts to remediate site groundwater contamination and deactivate facilities for demolition.
Last year, Global Laser Enrichment announced purchase of a 665-acre parcel adjacent to the Paducah site for a facility that will use laser technology, rather than centrifuges, to enrich uranium from DOE waste byproducts. The firm has submitted environmental and safety analyses for federal review, with plans to begin plant operation by 2030.
EnCore Energy also has begun building new in-situ recovery facilities at its Upper Spring Creek uranium project in Texas. Under an extended state radioactive materials license, work includes site preparation, wellfield construction, new support infrastructure and pouring of concrete foundations for a new satellite ion exchange unit linked to a central uranium processing plant in Rosita. It expects to begin recovering uranium by the end of the year and increase production in 2026.
33 GW
New U.S. utility-scale solar power capacity set to be added in 2025. If realized, solar would make up more than half of total power that developers aim to bring online this year, the highest since 2002. That year, 58 GW of capacity was added to the U.S. grid, all but 1 GW fueled by natural gas.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, June 2025
Ferrovial Expands in US Solar Power Sector
Photo of Mexico solar site courtesy of Ferrovial
Spain-based global infrastructure firm Ferrovial said Aug. 26 it is investing about $355 million to develop a 250-MW solar power facility in Milam County, Texas, for which it will manage construction, operation and maintenance. The project would produce power by 2027, delivering about 450 GWh annually to the Texas grid. Construction is set to begin in the coming months, generating nearly 300 jobs, said María José Esteruelas, Ferrovial Energy CEO. The company said it also expects to produce 475 GWh of power annually by next year from a plant in Leon County it is building and will operate, with its $72-million investment the firm’s first in a U.S. renewable project. Ferrovial also is building a 72-MW solar plant with a 60-MW battery energy storage system in Houston for renewable and energy storage developer X-Elio. That firm said it has operated solar power in Mexico (see photo above) since 2018.
By Debra K. Rubin
