PLUGGING FUEL SUPPLY GAPS | FUEL & FUEL CYCLE
Right: Map showing US uranium deposits. Source: USGS
The planned voluntary agreements will prioritise those
companies that have achieved objective milestones for the co-operative procurement of LEU and HALEU, but the DOE says the new DPA Consortium will operate separately from pre-existing measures for procurement of HALEU.
HALEU availability A ‘HALEU Availability Program’ was established in 2020 to secure a domestic supply of HALEU for civilian domestic research, development, demonstration, and commercial use. Executive Order (EO)14301, Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy, tasked DOE with reforming reactor testing programmes and establishing pilot demonstrations, with the goal of three reactors achieving criticality by 4 July 2026. DOE is required to prioritise making HALEU available
as required by the X-Energy Demonstration Reactor and the Terra Power Natrium Demonstration Reactor, both of which have government funding (under Pathway 1 Advanced Nuclear Reactor Demonstrations). In addition, EO 14299, Deploying Advanced Nuclear
Reactor Technologies for National Security, directed the DOE to release at least 20t of HALEU through a federal fuel bank – 3t by 30 September 2024, 8t by 31 December 2025 and 10t by 30 June 2026 – providing it is surplus to the requirements above. The HALEU is sourced from surplus stockpiles at DOE and NNSA facilities, such as the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Idaho National Laboratory. In addition, the Department is supporting the production of HALEU supplies from a new enrichment capability at the Piketon plant at the DOE Portsmouth Site. DOE created a HALEU allocation process for nuclear developers to request HALEU material. Evaluation of Requests were considered with regard to:
Whether the project involves a government-funded programme, an public-private partnership or cost-shared agreement with DOE.
Whether the use is consistent with DOE’s objective
to establish a sustainable HALEU supply chain; its research and development mission; partnerships with universities to advance HALEU innovation and develop future human capital; and technology development and deployment of advanced nuclear technologies.
A well-developed schedule with milestones clearly describing the status of licensing and regulatory approaches needed to support utilization.
Objective evidence that the requesting entity has access to the capabilities to use the HALEU (eg capability to manufacture fuel for an initial core, validate design parameters, meet transportation and shipping requirements and provide licensed storage).
DOE received HALEU requests from 15 companies. In April it named five companies that met prioritisation criteria, with three of them requiring fuel delivery in 2025. It made conditional commitments to:
TRISO-X, LLC. Kairos Power, LLC. Radiant Industries, Inc. Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC
TerraPower, LLC. In August, DOE announced three more successful
companies (Round 2 Conditional Selections), which were:
Antares Nuclear, Inc. for use in their advanced microreactor design that is looking to go critical by July 4, 2026, under the DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program
Standard Nuclear, Inc. to establish TRISO fuel lines to support the Reactor Pilot Program and other TRISO-fueled reactors
Abilene Christian University/Natura Resources LLC for use in a new molten salt research reactor that is under construction in Texas.
DOE has now started the contracting process to
allocate the material to the first five companies, some of which could receive their HALEU this year. ■
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