On 7 April 2026 the Indian government announced that the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) reached criticality. The 500 MWe reactor is located at Kalpakkam.

Reactor construction began over 20 years ago, in 2004, with a plan to begin operation in 2010 but it has experienced recurring delays. In March 2024 the operator began loading fuel in the reactor. In August 2025 the Department of Atomic Energy announced that the criticality would be achieved in March 2026.

In 2026, India's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change noted that the cost of the breeder reactor project was now estimated to be over twice the initial planned cost: ₹8,181 crore, compared with an original cost of estimate of ₹3,492 crore. (In purchasing power parity terms, the costs are $3.9 billion and $1.7 billion.)

The Committee also noted that 'fast reactor fuel cycle facility' (FRFCF) to reprocess the breeder's spent fuel was originally to be ready to operate in 2014 but it was now expected to be commissioned in December 2029.

The lengthy delays and cost escalations of the PFBR are illustrative of challenges faced by fast breeder reactors elsewhere. For background on the troubled history and operating experiences worldwide of breeder reactors, see the IPFM report Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: History and Status.

BWX Technologies announced its intent to apply to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to build a new enrichment facility. The new plant will be built adjacent to the BWXT Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) facility in Erwin, TN. The plant is expected to begin operations in 2035.

The company reported that this facility will support the $1.5 billion contract it received in September 2025 as part of a DoE program launched in 2024.

The technology for the facility will be developed at the center BWXT established in Oak Ridge, TN and will be based on the research under the Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) that has been carried out at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory since 2016.

On 2 April 2026, Urenco USA announced the completion of the first phase of the expansion plan that it unveiled in 2023. The fourth new centrifuge cascade began operations on 30 March 2026, bringing the total newly installed capacity to 350 tSWU/year (the first three cascades became operational in May, September, and December 2025).

After this phase of expansion, the capacity of the plant in Eunice is estimated to be 4,650 tSWU/year.

According to Urenco USA, another 350 tSWU/year of capacity will be added in 2026-2027. The company also plans to add another 2,100 tSWU/year in the future.

If this plan is completed, it would bring the total capacity to 7,100 tSWU/year. The original plan envisioned that the total capacity of the facility would reach 5,700 tSWU/year.

Global Laser Enrichment, a company established to provide enrichment services in the United States, plans to invest $1.76 billion to develop the Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF) in Paducah, Kentucky. The company holds a license for Silex laser separation technology.

The site in Paducah is the location of the former DoE Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, closed down in 2013. GLE's interest in the site goes back to 2014, when it applied to the NRC for a license.

Another US company, General Matter, leased a plot of land there. It appears that both companies plan to take advantage of the subsidy provided by the US government for the development of domestic enrichment capacity.

Both apparently plan to re-enrich uranium tails from the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The General Matter lease included "a minimum of 7,600 cylinders of existing uranium hexafluoride." As for GLE, DoE sold about 300,000 tonnes of depleted uranium to the company in 2016.

In its 2025 Annual Report URENCO outlined its plans to expand the enrichment capacity. The projected increase is 2500 tSWU/year across the plants in Almelo, Gronau, and Eunice.

The plant in Almelo, the Netherlands, is adding two new production lines, 750 tSWU/year each. The first stage of the expansion was approved in 2023, the second--in 2025. Once the second stage comes online in 2030, the total capacity of the Almelo plant will reach ~6600 tSWU/year, an increase from the 5100 tSWU/year capacity (reported in January 2025).

The plant in Eunice, the United States, is in the process of adding 700 tSWU/year capacity to its 4900 tSWU/year installed there as of 2023, when the expansion plan was unveiled. The installation of new cascades began in 2024. The first three cascades became operational in May, September, and December 2025. The planned expansion is expected to be complete in 2027.

The plant in Gronau, Germany, is undergoing expansion as well. The report notes that the installation of the first two cascades will be ready for installation in 2026. The scale of the expansion has not been announced. A 2023 industry report suggested that it will add a few hundred tSWU/year to the plant's current capacity of 3400 tSWU/year (3600 tSWU/year in January 2025). Taking into account the increases at Almelo and Eunice, to get to the 2500 tSWU/y total, the Gronau plan will probably install additional 300 tSWU/year capacity.

The facility in Capenhurst, the United Kingdom, plans to add a line that will produce HALEU. In 2024 this project was supported by the UK government. According to the annual report, the line is expected to produce up to 27 tonnes HALEU/year. It appears that no expansion of LEU production capacity is planned.

France's minister of the armed forces, Catherine Vautrin, said in an interview for Le Dauphiné Libéré that France can use the uranium and plutonium extracted from warheads dismantled after the end of the Cold War to support the increase of the French nuclear arsenal, announced by President Macron in his address on 2 March 2026. Catherine Vautrin was quoted as saying that:

Nous avons conservé les matières fissiles (uranium et plutonium) issues des têtes nucléaires démantelées après la guerre froide. À ce titre, nous disposons d'un stock totalement suffisant pour produire les nouvelles têtes nucléaires annoncées par Emmanuel Macron. Concernant le tritium qui, lui, ne peut pas être recyclé, le président a lancé un programme national dédié pour assurer notre approvisionnement.

The translation of the quote is below:

We have retained the fissile materials (uranium and plutonium) from the nuclear warheads dismantled after the Cold War. In this regard, we have a fully sufficient stockpile to produce the new nuclear warheads announced by Emmanuel Macron. As for tritium, which cannot be recycled, the President has launched a dedicated national programme to ensure our supply.

France is estimated to have about 6 tonnes of plutonium and about 25 tonnes of HEU that are available for weapons. These amounts far exceed what is required to maintain France's current arsenal of fewer than 300 warheads.

The size of the post-Cold War arsenal was first officially disclosed in 2008. In his address on 21 March 2008 in Cherbourg, then President of France Nicolas Sarkozy stated that

our arsenal will include fewer than 300 nuclear warheads. That is half of the maximum number of warheads we had during the Cold War.

The 300-warheads ceiling was then confirmed by President Hollande in 2015 and President Macron in 2020.

The 2008 announcement suggests that France can at least double the number of nuclear warheads in its arsenal, going back to the Cold War levels. It also appears to have enough material for a more significant increase. While the exact amounts of uranium and plutonium in French warheads are unknown, it may be estimated that 300 warheads contain about 1.2 tonnes of plutonium and about 5 tonnes of HEU out of 6 tonnes and 25 tonnes of the stock available for weapons respectively.

Unlike uranium and plutonium, the stock of tritium produced during the Cold War requires replenishment. In March 2024, France unveiled a program to produce tritium in the EDF civilian reactor in Civaux. In the past, tritium was produced in reactors of the CEA (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Atomic Energy Commission).

This post contains a summary of INFCIRC/549 reports by the countries that submit annual civilian plutonium declarations that reflect the status of civilian plutonium stocks as of 31 December 2024. The total amount of plutonium declared as civilian was about 379 tonnes, an increase of about 5 tonnes since the end of 2023. Only about 146 tonnes of this material are under international (IAEA or Euratom) safeguards. The other 232 tonnes are not safeguarded, but are covered by various obligations not to use the material for military purposes.

Japan (INFCIRC/549/Add.1-28) reported owning the total of 44.4 tonnes of plutonium, 8.6 tonnes of which is in Japan (the numbers in 2023 were 44.5 tons and 8.7 tons respectively). According to the Status Report on Plutonium Management in Japan - 2024 released in August 2025, out of the 35.8 tons of plutonium abroad, 21.713 tonnes are in the United Kingdom and 14.079 tonnes are in France.

Germany (INFCIRC/549/Add.2-28) reported having no separated plutonium in the country for the fifth year in a row. Germany does not report separated plutonium outside of the country. It is believed to be less than 1 tonne.

Belgium (INFCIRC/549/Add.3-24) declared no separated plutonium in storage or at reprocessing plants and "not zero, but less than 50 kg" of separated plutonium in other categories. It reported that it had no foreign plutonium as of 31 December 2024.

Switzerland (INFCIRC/549/Add.4-29) reported having less than 2 kg of plutonium in the country (in the "located elsewhere" category). The number has not changed since 2016 (it was "less than 50 kg" in 2015).

France (INFCIRC/549/Add.5-29) reported having 113.7 tonnes of separated unirradiated plutonium in its custody. Of this amount, 14.45 tonnes belongs to foreign countries (no change since 2023). Almost all that plutonium - 14,079 kg - belongs to Japan. The amount of plutonium owned by France is 99.25 tonnes, an increase of 3 tonnes from previous year (96.25 tonnes).

The United States (INFCIRC/549/Add.6-26) declared 49.4 tonnes of separated plutonium, of which 4.6 tons are in MOX fuel and 44.8 tons are "held elsewhere" (most of this material is believed to be in weapon components). The total amount was reported to be 49 tons in 2023. Note that the United States did not submit the 2023 report. The 2024 report, however, contains some data that refer to the 2023 amounts. The amount described as "disposed as waste" was 5.3 tonnes in 2024, an increase from 4.7 tonnes in 2022.

China has not has not submitted its 2017-2024 reports as of 2 March 2026. The last INFCIRC/549 report submitted to the IAEA showed 40.9 kg of separated plutonium as of 31 December 2016.

The United Kingdom (INFCIRC/549/Add.8-28) reported owning 116.8 tonnes of separated plutonium (no change from 2023). In addition to that, the United Kingdom stores 24.1 tonnes of foreign plutonium (of which 21.713 tonnes is owned by Japan and 1.58 tonnes by Italy). The total amount of separated plutonium in the United Kingdom is 140.9 tonnes.

Russia (INFCIRC/549/Add.9-27) reported owning 66.1 tonnes of civilian plutonium, an increase from 64.9 tonnes reported in 2023.

In addition to reporting plutonium stocks, some countries also submit data on their civilian HEU:

Germany reported 0.42 tonnes of HEU "contained in research reactors" (0.39 tonnes in 2023), 0.94 tonnes of HEU in irradiated research reactor fuel "contained in storage," and 0.02 tonnes in the category "HEU held elsewhere."

France declared 5363 kg of HEU (5369 kg in 2023), of which 3749 kg (3801 kg) is unirradiated material - 539 kg (573 kg) of HEU at fuel fabrication or reprocessing plants, 10 kg (51 kg) at civil reactor sites, 3200 kg (3177 kg) at various research facilities. Also declared are 1614 kg (1551 kg) of irradiated HEU - 52 kg (40 kg) at civil reactor sites and 1562 kg (1528 kg) in other locations.

The United Kingdom reported having 637 kg of HEU (636 kg in 2023). Of this amount, 501 kg is unirradiated HEU (499 in 2023): less than 1 kg of unirradiated HEU is stored at the enrichment plants, less than 1 kg is at civil reactor sites, 438 kg - at fuel fabrication facilities, and 63 kg - at other sites (412 kg and 87 kg respectively in 2023). Irradiated HEU is located at civil reactor sites (5 kg) and other sites (132 kg).

On 28 January 2026, Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL) published a provisional five-year operation plan for the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and the MOX Fuel Fabrication Plant. The document confirms the previous plan, published in December 2024, which followed the announcement of a delay in bringing the Rokkasho plant into operation made in August 2024.

The current plan assumes that the plant will extract its first 0.6 MT of plutonium by reprocessing 70 MT of fuel in the second half of FY2027. The plant is expected to reach the capacity of 400 MT of fuel a year (3.2 MT of plutonium) in FY2030.

The MOX fuel fabrication plant is projected to produce the first fuel (containing 2.0 MT of plutonium), in FY2030.

On 26 January 2026, two companies announced plans to expand centrifuge manufacturing facilities in Oak Ridge, TN. BWXT opened its Centrifuge Manufacturing Development Facility. Another company, Centrus, announced the plan to expand the Technology and Manufacturing Center.

For BWXT, the facility is part of the plan to establish the supply of unobligated domestic enriched uranium. The company received a $1.5 billion contract from NNSA in September 2025.

The Centrus expansion is supported by funds provided by the Department of Energy earlier in January 2026.

US Department of Energy awarded $2.7 billion to three companies "to provide enrichment services for LEU and HALEU:

• American Centrifuge Operating ($900 million) to create domestic HALEU enrichment capacity
• General Matter ($900 million) to create domestic HALEU enrichment capacity
• Orano Federal Services ($900 million) to expand U.S. domestic LEU enrichment capacity."

General Matter and Centrus/American Centrifuge Operating were among the four companies selected in 2024 to build domestic HALEU supply. In August 2025, General Matter leased a plot of land in Paducah with the intent to "reindustrialize the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant." The company has yet to operate an enrichment facility or, indeed, to unveil the technology it intends to use.

Centrus produced its first 900 kg of HALEU in 2025 and plans to expand the production capacity.

Orano received the award to build an enrichment facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The company estimated the total cost of this project "at nearly $5 billion."

The $2.7 billion award is part of the program to boost US domestic enrichment capacity announced in June 2024.