What is the typical cost of enriching uranium to 5% for nuclear power plants?

1. How much physical “work” is required to reach 5%?

The technical literature frames enrichment in separative work units: producing 1 kg of uranium enriched to 5% U‑235 requires about 7.9 SWU if the enrichment plant operates with a tails assay of 0.25% and roughly 8.9 SWU if the tails is lowered to 0.20%—a difference driven by the tradeoff between consuming more feedstock and doing more separative work ^[1]. The choice of tails assay and the plant technology (centrifuge vs older diffusion plants) materially change the SWU required and the energy consumed ^{[1] [4]}.

2. Converting SWU into dollars: recent market snapshots and historical context

Turning SWU into a price tag requires a market rate for SWU; in 2012 the U.S. average reported price per SWU was $141.36 (a widely cited baseline), while market intelligence from 2024–2025 shows separative‑work prices reported around $176/SWU as conversion and enrichment bottlenecks tightened after geopolitical disruptions ^{[2] [3]}. Older forecasts and academic work have projected a substantially wider band—$40–$90/SWU under different technological scenarios—illustrating that SWU price is sensitive to technology, capacity and market structure ^[5].

3. Typical enrichment‑only cost per kilogram of 5% LEU

Multiplying the SWU requirement by plausible SWU prices gives the enrichment‑only cost: at 7.9 SWU/kg, enrichment costs about $1,109/kg at $141/SWU and about $1,390/kg at $176/SWU; at 8.9 SWU/kg the same price points yield roughly $1,257/kg and $1,566/kg respectively. Using the lower academic price band of $40–$90/SWU would instead imply enrichment costs between roughly $316/kg and $801/kg for 7.9 SWU/kg—hence the “typical” number depends entirely on what SWU price and tails/feed assumptions one treats as baseline ^{[1] [2] [3] [5]}.

4. Why enrichment cost isn’t the whole story for reactor fuel

Enrichment is only one component of fuel cost: conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication together drive fuel cost, and fuel services (conversion, enrichment, fabrication) historically make up a considerable share of fuel-cycle expenditures—enrichment can account for a meaningful fraction of the fuel bill but not its entirety ^[6]. Some writers and industry summaries also state enrichment contributes only a modest share of the ultimate electricity cost—on the order of a few percent of generation cost—because the thermal energy extracted dwarfs upstream service costs, even when enrichment prices rise ^{[7] [6]}.

5. Key uncertainties, market drivers and hidden assumptions

Any precise dollar figure depends on the selected tails assay (which trades feed mass for SWU), the technology and efficiency of the enricher, the prevailing SWU price (which has fluctuated widely), and whether one includes feedstock (natural uranium), conversion and fabrication in the calculation; publicly available data sets and calculators illustrate these sensitivities but do not converge on a single “typical” dollar figure ^{[8] [1] [9]}. Geopolitics and supply‑chain bottlenecks—such as shifts in conversion and enrichment capacity—have recently pushed SWU prices up, and future technological or market changes could pull costs in either direction ^{[3] [5]}.

6. Bottom line

For the enrichment step alone, expect a plausible current market cost on the order of $1,100–$1,600 per kilogram of 5% LEU using recent SWU price signals and standard tails choices, while broader scenarios (older averages, academic forecasts, or different tails) create a wider band from a few hundred dollars to roughly $1,500/kg; a full cost of fuel loaded into a reactor will be higher because it must add feed, conversion and fabrication costs and is influenced by market and policy shifts ^{[1] [2] [3] [5] [6]}.