The U.S. Division of Vitality (DOE) has awarded contracts with a complete potential worth of $8 million to 4 nuclear gas firms to additional U.S. enrichment capabilities for high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU), a essential piece of the next-generation nuclear provide chain.
The chosen firms embrace Centrus Vitality’s American Centrifuge Working, URENCO’s Louisiana Vitality Providers, Orano Federal Providers, and Basic Matter. The DOE on Oct. 17 mentioned the contracts would permit the chosen firms to bid on future work to supply and retailer HALEU within the type of uranium hexafluoride gasoline (UF6), which can ultimately be made into gas for superior reactors.
“All contracts will final for as much as 10 years, and every awardee will obtain a minimal contract of $2 million, with as much as $2.7 billion out there for these providers, topic to the supply of appropriations,” the company mentioned. The HALEU that DOE acquires by way of these contracts “shall be used to help reactors like these below growth by way of DOE’s Superior Reactor Demonstration Program—TerraPower’s Natrium reactor and X-energy’s Xe-100,” it famous.
Constructing Out the Home HALEU Provide Chain
The measure marks a essential step to increase the home HALEU provide chain. Whereas the prevailing U.S. fleet runs on uranium gas enriched as much as 5% with uranium-235 (U-235), HALEU is a nuclear materials enriched between 5% to twenty%. The fabric has a number of makes use of in gas for superior reactors, together with for tristructural isotropic (TRISO) gas. HALEU may be utilized in working reactors (enriched between 5% and 10%) to spice up their efficiency. 
This graphic from Idaho Nationwide Laboratory (INL) illustrates the numerous steps inside an built-in high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) provide chain. Supply: INL
Whereas the DOE has been working to supply small portions of HALEU from spent gas recycling, it’s at the moment pursuing a number of pathways to safe a home HALEU provide. Beneath the HALEU Availability Program (HAP), established by the Vitality Act of 2020, the company issued two requests for proposals (RFPs)—for enrichment and deconversion—to amass HALEU by way of buy agreements with home business companions. (In June, individually, the DOE launched an RFP to purchase low-enriched uranium from home suppliers to sever U.S. reliance on Russian imports).
The trouble is an element of a bigger bid by the DOE to spur demand for added HALEU manufacturing and kickstart personal funding within the home nuclear gas provide infrastructure. “Presently, industrial nuclear gas suppliers can’t produce HALEU largely because of market uncertainties and infrastructure gaps. This poses a priority for the event, demonstration, and deployment of many superior nuclear applied sciences,” the DOE has mentioned.
As POWER has reported, nuclear gas producers have expressed curiosity in customizing and increasing their uranium enrichment capability. Nevertheless, they’ve underscored the necessity to underwrite the numerous capital investments this effort would require. The HAP measures will leverage $700 million in funding allotted by the 2022 Inflation Discount Act (IRA) to help HAP actions. That funding is accessible by way of Sept. 30, 2026. As well as, the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act (H.R. 1042), enacted in Could 2024, unlocked $2.7 billion to jumpstart new enrichment capability within the U.S.
In March 2024, the DOE famous it closed two separate requests for proposals (RFPs) for the acquisition of HALEU enrichment and deconversion providers. On Oct. 8, it introduced the full record of profitable bidders that can present deconversion providers to deconvert HALEU from UF6 to uranium oxide and/or uranium metallic types. Alternatives embrace: Nuclear Gas Providers, a part of BWX Applied sciences (BWXT); American Centrifuge Working, a part of Centrus Vitality; Framatome; GE Vernova; Orano; and Westinghouse.
Enrichment Contracts Could Help Enlargement of Present Amenities
Up to now, HALEU enrichment capabilities are being demonstrated by Centrus below a DOE contract. Centrus in October 2023 kicked off enrichment operations at its American Centrifuge Plant cascade in Piketon, Ohio. In November 2023, the corporate introduced the supply of its first 20 kilograms (kg) of HALEU. Beneath its contract with the DOE, the ability is slated to supply 900 kg for a full yr. The DOE, which owns the HALEU produced from the demonstration cascade, is compensating Centrus on a “cost-plus-incentive-fee” foundation, with an anticipated Section 2 contract worth of roughly $90 million, topic to Congressional appropriations. A contract offers the DOE choices to pay for as much as 9 extra years of manufacturing from the cascade past the bottom contract.
In a press release on Thursday, Centrus president and CEO Amir Vexler mentioned the DOE’s enrichment contract awarded to its subsidiary, American Centrifuge Working (ACO), “might facilitate the potential enlargement of Centrus’ first-of-a-kind HALEU manufacturing capability to assist meet the wants of the superior nuclear business and the nation.” The contract “represents a essential piece of the public-private partnership we’re working to construct in order that we are able to restore a sturdy, American-owned uranium enrichment functionality to energy the way forward for nuclear power,” he mentioned.
Beneath the contract, ACO will “manufacture the centrifuges and supporting gear solely within the U.S., relying upon home engineering and a home provide chain that at the moment spans 14 main, American-owned suppliers in 13 states and is anticipated to develop,” the corporate famous. Centrus mentioned the final greenback quantity related to this award—and the potential scale of the enlargement—will “rely on process orders” subsequently issued by the DOE.
UK-based URENCO mentioned its Urenco USA affiliate already “at the moment has the capability to satisfy roughly one-third of the enrichment wants of U.S. utilities and is increasing to satisfy additional demand.” The corporate famous its facility in Eunice, New Mexico—which started operations in 2010 and stays the solely industrial enrichment facility working within the U.S.—has already begun licensing actions with the Nuclear Regulatory Fee (NRC) to help allowable U-235 enrichment ranges to 10% and help business growth and implementation of accident tolerant gas (ATF). “This is a vital stepping stone in the direction of the manufacturing of HALEU,” URENCO mentioned on Wednesday.
“Urenco USA’s U.S. workforce has the data and expertise to play a number one function within the manufacturing of HALEU and different superior fuels, working for greater than a decade securely below intergovernmental treaties to make sure the peaceable use and safeguarding of nuclear expertise,” mentioned John Kirkpatrick, managing director of Urenco USA.
Like Centrus, Orano additionally acquired a deconversion contract. The enrichment contract will help Orano’s “vital funding within the design and development of an American HALEU enrichment facility [that] would use present fashionable ultracentrifugation expertise to promptly and securely ship HALEU capability with out the necessity for added in depth analysis and growth,” the corporate advised POWER.
“As a profitable, world chief for uranium chemistry, enrichment, and supply, we now have been collaborating from the very starting within the DOE’s course of for creating U.S. HALEU capability that’s dependable, diversified, and commercially viable,” mentioned Jean-Luc Palayer, CEO, Orano USA.
Palayer underscored the significance of the environment friendly growth of a home HALEU provide chain. “With the rapidly rising demand for clear, regular nuclear power in our nation, and most not too long ago from high tech firms for energy-hungry AI and information facilities, it’s important for the nuclear business, with the help from DOE, to determine the wanted HALEU provide chain now to be prepared for powering superior reactors,” he mentioned.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
