Urenco Group

62Credible Contributor· Provisional

0 followersNuclear / SMR·Stoke Poges, United Kingdom·Founded 1970

www.urenco.com/

Urenco is a multinational uranium enrichment company jointly owned by the UK, Dutch, and German governments, operating centrifuge plants in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, and US and supplying roughly 30% of global enriched uranium.

62/100

Credible Contributor· Provisional

ClimateTicker Green Score · how it's calculated

Greenwashing risk: mediumData confidence: medium

Why it's on ClimateTicker

Urenco is a critical upstream enabler of zero-carbon nuclear power, supplying roughly 30% of global enriched uranium to reactor operators who collectively avoid hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO₂ annually; its own operational footprint is relatively modest and declining fast under SBTi-validated targets. The honest caveat is that Urenco itself does not generate electricity — it is a process-industry supplier — and its core technology carries inherent dual-use proliferation risk and produces depleted uranium tails that require long-term stewardship, both of which create material non-climate ESG overhangs.

enablerUrenco sells uranium enrichment services (measured in Separative Work Units, SWU) to nuclear power utilities worldwide under long-term contracts, and separately sells stable and medical isotopes; it reported €1.88 billion in revenue for FY2024 with an order book extending into the 2040s worth €18.7 billion.

Commitments & Certifications

CDP: A- ↗other: Bronze Medal ↗other: EMAS Validated (Germany site only) ↗other: GRI-aligned reporter ↗SBTi: Near-term targets validated ↗

Controversy & Greenwashing Watch

mediumDepleted Uranium Tails Stockpile and Long-Term Liability

Urenco's enrichment operations produce large volumes of depleted uranium hexafluoride (tails) that require indefinite safe storage and eventual conversion, representing an unresolved environmental and financial liability across all four sites.source ↗

lowSafety Performance Deterioration (TRIR 2025)

Total Recordable Injury Rate rose from 0.291 in 2024 to 0.400 in 2025, with 15 recordable injuries, indicating a step backward in operational safety performance.source ↗

mediumDual-Use Enrichment Technology — HALEU Risk

Urenco is developing High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) at its UK Capenhurst site, a material enriched to near weapons-grade levels (up to 19.75% U-235), raising heightened proliferation scrutiny even as it is marketed for next-generation civilian reactors.source ↗

highA.Q. Khan Nuclear Proliferation via Urenco Technology

Pakistani metallurgist A.Q. Khan stole Urenco centrifuge designs in the 1970s and used them as the foundation for Pakistan's uranium enrichment programme and later a global nuclear weapons proliferation network spanning Libya, Iran, and North Korea — the most serious dual-use governance failure in the company's history.source ↗

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