> What has changed here to make them competitive again?

The article has to be read carefully. "On Actinide's engineering estimates, a single Fortitude machine would provide roughly half the isotope-separation capacity of the U.S. government's current electromagnetic fleet."

The "U.S. government's current electromagnetic fleet" is tiny. Oak Ridge is building a modest plant.[1] Idaho has a benchtop-sized separator. That's what Actinide is comparing against. Not the rows of basketball court sized calutrons from WWII. So the announcement gives the impression of a larger operation than it really is.

> Speaking of which, whatever happened to laser enrichment? That was apparently very promising at some point?

That is a very good question. A company called Silex, and their subsidiary Global Laser Enrichment, has been trying to commercialize this for years.[3][4] Exactly how they do this is classified.[5]

There's another startup in this area, crawling along, underfunded, but building something.[6]

Meanwhile, URENCO continues to operate a centrifuge plant in New Mexico.[7] URENCO is a a European company, and seems to be the leader in centifuge technology. Units in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US.

I've been expecting something big to happen in the laser enrichment area since the 1990s, but it never has. This suggest that it either doesn't work very well or is being suppressed because it works too well.

[1] https://www.energy.gov/science/articles/doe-expands-stable-i...

[2] https://inldigitallibrary.inl.gov/content/uploads/50/2026/04...

[3] https://www.silex.com.au/

[4] https://www.gle-us.com/

[5] https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2304/ML23045A117.pdf

[6] https://laseristech.com/

[7] https://urencousa.com/

Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)