Four companies picked for fast-tracked fuel fabrication

By allowing companies to build and operate a fuel fabrication facility under DOE authorization—a faster if unconventional alternative to Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing—the DOE’s aim is ensuring “a robust supply of fuel is available for research, development, and demonstration purposes—including the 11 reactors initially selected to participate in DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program.”

Backed by executive orders: “President Trump has made clear that a strong nuclear sector is a central component of America’s energy security and prosperity,” said Deputy Secretary of Energy James P. Danly. “Restoring a secure domestic fuel supply will ensure that advanced reactors can move quickly from design to deployment and into operation. The ability to produce these fuels is essential to ensuring American leadership in nuclear energy and to meeting the nation’s growing demand for reliable power.”

Both the Fuel Line Pilot Program and the Reactor Pilot Program are driven by President Trump’s May 23 Executive Order 14301, “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy,” which calls for “a pilot program for reactor construction and operation outside the National Laboratories.” The fuel line program also takes its direction from Executive Order 14299, “Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security.”

The companies: Each of the four companies named yesterday is linked to at least one new, non–light water reactor design already receiving support from the DOE.

• Oklo (Santa Clara, Calif.) plans to build and operate three reactors under the DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program (one of which will support subsidiary Atomic Alchemy’s radioisotope production goals), and on September 22 announced that it had broken ground on Aurora-INL, its first sodium-cooled fast reactor, at Idaho National Laboratory. According to the DOE, under the fuel pilot line program Oklo will “build and operate three fuel fabrication facilities to support their Aurora and Pluto reactors, and possibly other fast reactors.” (Oklo has not released information about the Pluto reactor named by the DOE.) Oklo also plans to build and operate a spent fuel recycling facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., as part of a $1.68 billion advanced fuel center, and on September 29 announced a collaboration with Swedish reactor developer Blykalla on common interests including fuel fabrication.
• Terrestrial Energy (Charlotte, N.C.) is developing a 195-MWe thermal spectrum molten fluoride salt–cooled and –fueled reactor and also was chosen for the Reactor Pilot Program. This year the company also was invited (along with three other companies) to site a reactor at Texas A&M University’s Rellis Campus. With DOE support, the company plans to “develop the Terrestrial Energy Fuel Line Assembly to demonstrate a fuel salt fabrication process in a phased approach.”
• TRISO-X (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) is the fuel fabrication arm of X-energy, which is developing the Xe-100, a high-temperature gas-cooled and TRISO pebble–fueled reactor for initial deployment on the Texas Gulf Coast with support from the DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. The planned Long Mott Generating Station would supply power to Dow Chemical Company’s Seadrift Operations manufacturing site. TRISO-X has applied for an NRC Category 2 fuel cycle facility license and has begun construction activities for its first TRISO fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Under DOE authorization, the company will “build and operate an additional fuel fabrication laboratory facility to enable pilot-scale integration, training, and system validation to support the TX-1 commercial TRISO fuel fabrication facility.”
• Valar Atomics (Hawthorne, Calif.) was named one of the DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program picks and in mid-September announced that it had broken ground for a test reactor at Utah’s San Rafael Energy Lab. Under the fuel program, Valar plans to “support TRISO fuel fabrication for the Ward 250 reactor deployment and potentially other high-temperature gas reactors.”

Program parameters: The four would-be fuel fabricators chosen yesterday, along with Standard Nuclear, will be responsible for all costs associated with the construction, operation, and decommissioning of their facilities and must manage the sourcing of nuclear material feedstock.

Companies can apply to receive high-assay low-enriched uranium through the DOE’s HALEU Availability Program, and eight have already been chosen: Kairos Power, Radiant Industries, TerraPower, TRISO-X, and Westinghouse in April, and Abilene Christian University (backed by Natura Resources), Antares, and Standard Nuclear in August.

Selected companies seeking DOE authorization under either the test reactor program or the Fuel Pilot Line Program would execute Other Transaction Agreements “under contract with and for the account of” the DOE to “serve research, development, and demonstration purposes.” According to the Fuel Line Pilot Program request for applications, “fuel lines built and operated pursuant to the DOE pilot program will not require Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing. Nevertheless, DOE-approved fuel line designs can and will be fast-tracked for future NRC licensing.”