Paducah
General Matter is bringing uranium enrichment back to the United States, starting at the site where the U.S. enrichment industry was born.
Today, we announced our lease with the Department of Energy at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant to establish the nation’s first U.S.-owned, privately developed uranium enrichment facility.
Seventy-five years ago, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission selected Paducah to help lead the nation’s original enrichment efforts. Construction of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant began in 1951, and it was operational by 1952. Paducah led the U.S. in enrichment until 2013, when the plant was shut down and decommissioned. Today, we are proud to return to and rebuild this historic site to power a new era of American energy independence.
This is a multi-decade, one hundred-acre lease with the Department of Energy. On these one hundred acres, we will produce the fuel needed for the next generation of nuclear energy, central to America’s aspirations in AI, manufacturing, and other critical industries. We will end reliance on foreign adversaries for the nuclear fuel powering 20% of our grid.
We will enrich uranium by the end of the decade.
The U.S. was once the world leader in nuclear, but we’ve fallen behind other countries. We developed the first civilian nuclear reactors for energy production; today, the vast majority of reactors deployed overseas are foreign-designed and foreign-built. The fuel that powers these reactors rely on uranium enrichment. At its peak, the U.S. performed over 90% of global enrichment. Now, we are far less than 1%.
This changes today. U.S. leadership in enrichment will allow us to lead once again in nuclear energy. This lets us lead in everything downstream of safe, clean baseload power: AI, manufacturing, the economy.
Today marks the beginning of America’s restored leadership in nuclear enrichment. We thank our partners in Kentucky and at the Department of Energy for supporting us in this landmark investment in American nuclear infrastructure.
We are just getting started, and exceptional talent is needed. Join us.