A single site in Cheshire has quietly become one of the UK's most active nuclear recruiters. Urenco's Capenhurst plant is building Europe's first advanced-fuel enrichment facility, backed by £196m of government funding and around 400 skilled jobs. That's turned a long-established site into a genuine hiring hotspot almost overnight.
Key Takeaways
- The UK government awarded Urenco £196m in May 2024 to build a HALEU enrichment facility at Capenhurst, supporting around 400 highly-skilled jobs.
- The facility is Europe's first HALEU plant, targeted to produce up to 10 tonnes a year by 2031.
- It sits within a £300m national HALEU programme aimed at ending reliance on Russian enrichment.
- Costain was appointed programme delivery partner in March 2025, and Urenco agreed a HALEU supply deal with US firm Radiant in September 2025.
- Capenhurst anchors a North West nuclear corridor alongside Springfields near Preston, concentrating cleared and skilled nuclear roles in the region.
What makes Capenhurst a hiring hotspot
What does Urenco Capenhurst do?
Urenco Capenhurst enriches uranium, the process that turns natural uranium into fuel usable in civil nuclear reactors. It's one of only a handful of commercial enrichment sites worldwide, and it has supplied fuel to power stations in the UK and internationally for decades. What's changed is scope: the Cheshire site is now adding a new class of fuel that the next generation of reactors depends on.
That new capability is high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, and it's the reason recruitment has picked up sharply. Building a first-of-its-kind facility needs process engineers, nuclear technicians and project staff who weren't required at the same volume before. The site has moved from steady-state operation to active expansion, and hiring has followed.
Why is Urenco expanding at Capenhurst now?
The trigger was a £196m government award in May 2024 to build the HALEU facility, part of a wider £300m national HALEU programme announced in January 2024. The plant is targeted to produce up to 10 tonnes of HALEU a year by 2031, and it's the first facility of its kind in Europe. That combination of scale and novelty is what created the jobs.
The strategic driver behind it is supply security. Only Russia and China currently produce HALEU at commercial scale, so building domestic capacity removes a dependency the UK and its allies want gone. That urgency feeds directly into the demand for experienced nuclear talent across the sector, and Capenhurst is one of the sharpest local examples of it.
What HALEU means for hiring
What is HALEU and why does it need new skills?
HALEU is uranium enriched to between 5% and 20% of the U-235 isotope, higher than the roughly 5% used in today's reactors and the fuel most advanced and small modular reactor designs are built around. Producing it at Capenhurst calls for enrichment and process engineers, nuclear and radiological technicians, and chemical and mechanical specialists, many in roles that need or can transfer security clearance. Standing up a new production line is a different skills profile from running an established one.
Because HALEU fuels the reactors meant to help decarbonise power, the Capenhurst work ties directly into nuclear's move into greener energy. That connection matters for hiring, because it widens the candidate appeal beyond traditional nuclear into clean-energy and advanced-manufacturing engineers who want to work on next-generation technology.
What roles the Capenhurst expansion is creating
What jobs is Urenco Capenhurst creating?
The HALEU facility supports around 400 highly-skilled roles, spanning enrichment and process engineering, nuclear technician and operations posts, and the project, construction and commissioning staff who build and prove the plant. Costain's appointment as programme delivery partner in March 2025, on a framework expected to run at least three years, adds a further layer of engineering and project-management demand on top of Urenco's own headcount.
The pull isn't confined to one site. Capenhurst sits within a North West nuclear corridor that includes Springfields near Preston, where nuclear fuel is manufactured, so cleared and skilled roles concentrate across Cheshire and Lancashire. Urenco's parallel investment in the US, Netherlands and Germany signals this is a sustained expansion, not a one-off, which is confirmed by the September 2025 HALEU supply deal with US developer Radiant. For engineers in the region, that's a rare cluster of long-horizon nuclear work on the doorstep.
How Scantec supports nuclear hiring in the North West
Our nuclear desk has placed cleared and SQEP-qualified people across UK licensed sites for over three decades, and the North West corridor is squarely on our patch. Standing up a first-of-its-kind facility rewards a recruiter who understands clearance, transferability and the specialist disciplines enrichment work needs.
- We qualify clearance and transferability early. We check clearance status and portability before submission, because that single factor decides whether a candidate starts in weeks or months.
- We source the specialist disciplines, not just the job title. Enrichment, process and radiological roles need targeted search, so we work our nuclear network rather than a generic job board.
- We benchmark against a tightening regional market. With Capenhurst and Springfields competing for the same people, we advise on pay and packages that land ahead of a counter-offer.
- We hold candidates through vetting and notice. We keep people engaged across the quiet weeks, which is where nuclear placements are most often lost.
That specialist approach is the same discipline behind the way we source cleared nuclear and defence candidates, and it's what genuine nuclear recruitment looks like when the roles are this specialised.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Urenco?
Urenco is owned in three equal parts: a third by the UK government, a third by the Dutch government, and a third by German utilities including E.ON. That shared ownership structure, combined with UK government backing for the HALEU programme, is part of why the Capenhurst expansion carries strong political and financial support.
Is Urenco expanding at Capenhurst?
Yes. Urenco is building Europe's first HALEU enrichment facility at Capenhurst, backed by a £196m government award in May 2024 and targeted to produce up to 10 tonnes a year by 2031. The company is expanding capacity in parallel in the US, Netherlands and Germany, so the Cheshire growth is part of a wider programme.
What is HALEU used for?
HALEU, high-assay low-enriched uranium, is the fuel most advanced and small modular reactor designs are built to run on. Enriched to between 5% and 20% U-235, it sits above the roughly 5% used in current reactors. Building UK production reduces reliance on Russia and China, currently the only commercial-scale producers.
Where is Urenco Capenhurst?
Urenco's Capenhurst site is in Cheshire, in the North West of England, near Chester. It anchors a regional nuclear cluster that includes the Springfields fuel manufacturing site near Preston in Lancashire, concentrating enrichment, fuel and cleared nuclear roles across the two counties.
About the author
Peter Bates founded Scantec in 1990 and still leads the business today, holding to the same values it started with: delivery, integrity, transparency and compliance. Under his direction Scantec has grown into a UK Top 10 technical and engineering recruitment specialist, placing contract and permanent staff across nuclear, oil and gas, power generation, chemical, pharmaceutical and manufacturing. The firm holds ECIA, EIC, REC, FPAL, Achilles UVDB, JIB and ISO 9001 accreditation.
Hiring for the North West nuclear corridor
Scantec's nuclear team can brief you on candidate availability, clearance timelines and realistic time-to-hire for enrichment, fuel and wider nuclear roles across Cheshire and Lancashire. Call the nuclear desk on 0151 666 8999 or submit a vacancy to get started.
