# Source note — Orano Project Ike enrichment-hearing window (2026-08-22)

## Selected source-card
**Article:** `blog/articles/orano-project-ike-enrichment-hearing-source-card.html`  
**Evidence label:** official NRC/Federal Register application-and-hearing notice plus ANS trade explanation; not a licence, built plant, HALEU facility or investment signal.

## Official source
1. **Federal Register / Nuclear Regulatory Commission — “Orano Enrichment USA LLC; (Project Ike Enrichment Facility); Notice of Receipt of Application for License...”**  
   URL: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/12/2026-16372/orano-enrichment-usa-llc-project-ike-enrichment-facility-notice-of-receipt-of-application-for  
   Reader capture: `research/energy/orano-project-ike-enrichment-hearing-source-card-2026-08-22/source_official_federal_register_project_ike_jina.md`  
   Key anchors used:
   - NRC has received Orano Enrichment USA LLC’s application for a licence to construct and operate the Project IKE Enrichment Facility in eastern Tennessee, in Roane County, on land owned by the Industrial Development Board of the City of Oak Ridge.
   - The requested licence would authorize enrichment equipment and handling of byproduct, source and special nuclear material.
   - The facility would re-enrich depleted uranium hexafluoride tails and enrich natural-grade UF6 to a maximum of **8 weight percent uranium-235**.
   - The notice gives a public contested-hearing opportunity and describes the hearing/access procedures.

## Trade/reporting source
2. **ANS / Nuclear Newswire — “NRC opens, defines hearing opportunity for Orano’s Project Ike”**  
   URL: https://www.ans.org/news/article-8311/nrc-opens-defines-hearing-opportunity-for-oranos-project-ike/  
   Reader capture: `research/energy/orano-project-ike-enrichment-hearing-source-card-2026-08-22/source_trade_ans_project_ike_jina.md`  
   Key anchors used:
   - ANS says the Federal Register notice started a **60-day** public hearing-request period.
   - ANS reports Orano’s Project Ike as a **$5 billion** enrichment facility and states the NRC plans a **12-month** review target, compared with typical 18–20 month review durations in similar reviews.
   - ANS notes the NRC’s order contemplates a **315-day** contested-hearing schedule if a hearing is held and summarizes Commissioner Matthew J. Marzano’s concern about hearing-procedure interpretation under Atomic Energy Act section 193.

## Editorial cautions
- This is not HALEU. The public record says maximum 8 weight percent U-235; HALEU starts above 5% and below 20%, but this article avoids calling Project Ike a HALEU plant because the official notice’s stated maximum is below 10% and the source card should not overstate the fuel category.
- Do not claim NRC has issued the licence, construction has begun, enrichment output exists, or SMR/data-centre/mine customers have secured fuel from this project.
- Orano is majority French-state-owned through Orano SA; Project Ike’s U.S. subsidiary and Tennessee site are relevant to U.S. domestic/non-Russian enrichment capacity, but ownership and national-supply-chain claims need precision.
- Not investment advice: uranium, enrichment, reactor developers, utilities and AI/data-centre power plays are market-sensitive. This source card is infrastructure/source literacy only.