A facility on the grounds of General Electric's corporate base for its nuclear business in Wilmington will continue to operate following a recent acquisition and restructuring involving two international companies.

Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), a laser uranium enrichment technology business, will continue to operate the Test Loop facility at the Wilmington site through a lease agreement with Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas (GNF), said Jon Allen, spokesman for GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, in an email this week.

Wilmington-based GNF is a GE-led joint venture with Hitachi Ltd. GNF operates primarily through Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas LLC in Wilmington and Global Nuclear Fuel-Japan Co. Ltd. in Japan. 

"GLE is the exclusive licensee of the proprietary SILEX laser enrichment technology, third-generation uranium enrichment technology that is in the development phase," according to a news release.

The transaction has resulted in GE Hitachi selling off its 76% interest in the GLE business. Through an agreement, Australia-based Silex Systems Ltd. now owns a 51% interest in GLE and Canada-based Cameco, a uranium and nuclear fuel supplier, has increased its interest in GLE from 24% to 49%, according to Silex's announcement about the sale Feb. 1.

The transaction includes ownership of the Wilmington Test Loop facility under the new foreign-owned entity. The Test Loop facility is being "used to advance the performance and reliability of the process and equipment to be used for commercial laser enrichment," according to details about the facility on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's website.

The Wilmington facility is one of several parts of the business. Silex officials said in a release that the company will also continue to focus on a commercialization program, including preliminary planning for a commercial plant being considered in Paducah, Kentucky.

Meanwhile, GE Hitachi is hiring for several new positions associated with other developing and ongoing projects in its nuclear technologies business, including the company's progress toward the commercialization of its small modular reactor model.

The company has more than a dozen positions open in the Wilmington area to support its growing nuclear technologies, including engineers and project managers. 

"We are hiring for positions associated with projects that we’ve made recent announcements about including the BWRX-300 small modular reactor, Natrium technology that we are co-developing with TerraPower and next-generation fuel products," Allen said of the hiring trend.

In the GLE business, however, GE Hitachi has been trying to reduce its equity interest in GLE since 2016.

The business venture was formed in the 2000s by General Electric (GE), Hitachi and Cameco to develop uranium enrichment services capability.

GLE has exclusive rights to commercially develop the SILEX laser isotope separation process technology under an agreement reached with Silex in early 2006.

The recent acquisition means Silex has more control over the commercialization of the SILEX laser-based uranium enrichment technology, said Michael Goldsworthy, Silex CEO and managing director, in the February release.

Silex in January announced that the GLE restructure had obtained U.S. government approval.

“This new ownership structure, together with the recently announced U.S. government approval, represents the start of an important new era for GLE and the SILEX technology, at a time when nuclear power is coming back into focus as a key source of zero-emissions baseload electricity in an emissions constrained world," Goldsworthy said.

As part of its stake in GLE, Cameco, with Silex in the GLE partnership, will help support GLE’s advancement of SILEX laser enrichment technology, stated a news release.

“While there are still a number of development milestones before this technology could be commercialized, we believe it has excellent potential to expand Cameco’s reach in the nuclear fuel cycle in the future, building on the existing world-class assets and capabilities we already possess in uranium production, refining, conversion and fuel fabrication," Cameco president and CEO Tim Gitzel said in a news release.

“Cameco is committed to responsibly and sustainably managing our business and increasing our contributions to global climate change solutions,” Gitzel said. “Our investment in GLE aligns well with these objectives.”