Framatome has opened its $20 million uranium recovery facility at its fuel manufacturing site at 2101 Horn Rapids Road in Richland.

The 11,000-square-foot building took three years to construct and houses state-of-the-art processes and technologies to recover uranium from the manufacturing process.

Material is converted into uranium dioxide power and reused in the fuel fabrication process.

Framatome manufactures nuclear fuel and related products in Richland. The site is about 11 years into its 40-year site license, which expires in 2049.

It is one of the largest manufacturers in the Tri-Cities. In a 2019 profile, the company reported it has manufactured more than 2,300 fuel assemblies and more than 100 million uranium fuel pellets in the previous year.

It is not part of the Hanford site despite its work with nuclear power.

The plant opened in 1970 as Jersey Nuclear Co and has been known as Siemens Power Corp., Framatome ANP Richland and Areva NP. It reclaimed the Framatome name in 2018 when Areva sold a part of the company to EDF Group of France.

EDF Group holds a majority stake. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries holds a 19.5% stake and Assystem a 5% stake.