The nuclear fuel chain
Getting uranium from the ground into a reactor takes four industrial steps, and each one narrows. Roughly twenty countries mine uranium. Five plants on earth convert it to the gas that enrichment requires. Four organisations do essentially all of the enrichment. That funnel, not the reactors, is where the nuclear industry's real concentration lies.
Concentration at each stage
| Stage | World capacity | Top 3 share | Who | Facilities here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mining and milling | 60,213tU/yr (2024) | 75% | Kazakhstan (all operators), Canada (all operators), Namibia (all operators) | 47 |
| Conversion | 62,000tU/yr as UF6 (2022) | 69% | CNNC, Orano, Cameco | 10 |
| Enrichment | 68,076tSWU/yr (2025) | 88% | Rosatom, Urenco, CNNC | 25 |
| Fabrication | 14,912tHM/yr (2022) | 60% | Framatome, Westinghouse, TVEL | 31 |
| HALEU | n/a | - | - | 6 |
| Interim storage | n/a | - | - | 10 |
| Reprocessing | 3,860tHM/yr (2022) | 75% | Orano, JNFL, Rosatom | 4 |
| Geological disposal | n/a | - | - | 21 |
| Depleted uranium | n/a | - | - | 2 |
The stages
Mining and milling
Where is uranium mined?
47 facilities listed · top three hold 75%
Conversion
What is uranium conversion and who does it?
10 facilities listed · top three hold 69%
Enrichment
Who enriches uranium and how concentrated is the market?
25 facilities listed · top three hold 88%
Fabrication
Which companies fabricate nuclear fuel, and for which reactors?
31 facilities listed · top three hold 60%
HALEU
What is HALEU and who can actually produce it?
6 facilities listed
Interim storage
Where is spent nuclear fuel stored?
10 facilities listed
Reprocessing
What is nuclear fuel reprocessing?
4 facilities listed · top three hold 75%
Geological disposal
Is there a permanent repository for nuclear waste?
21 facilities listed
Depleted uranium
What happens to depleted uranium?
2 facilities listed
Sources
- World Nuclear Association information library, conversion, enrichment, fabrication, mining and reprocessing capacity tables · retrieved 2026-09-06 · each facility page cites the specific table its capacity figure comes from
- US Department of Energy, HALEU Availability Program, and company announcements for HALEU capacity
How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data