Standard Nuclear executes OTA with DOE
Reactor-agnostic TRISO fuel producer Standard Nuclear recently announced that it has executed an other transaction agreement (OTA) with the Department of Energy. As one of the five companies involved in the DOE’s Fuel Line Pilot Program, its entrance into this deal marks a milestone in the public-private effort to bring advanced fuel production on line in support of the DOE’s concurrently running Reactor Pilot Program.
The agreement: Under this OTA, Standard Nuclear will transition “key operational elements to full DOE oversight,” ensuring adherence to the rigorous framework of relevant federal codes, DOE orders, and DOE technical standards. The company added that this “enhanced oversight enables a substantial increase in the company’s TRISO fuel manufacturing throughput within its existing facilities.”
Standard Nuclear will interface with several arms of the DOE complex, especially Idaho National Laboratory. It will also receive technical support and specialized training from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 Security Complex. Notably, this is not Standard Nuclear’s first collaboration with ORNL. The company, which is also based in Oak Ridge, Tenn., received a GAIN voucher earlier this year to work with the lab on fuel assessment.
The four other companies involved in the Fuel Line Pilot Program (Oklo, Terrestrial Energy, TRISO-X, and Valar Atomics) have not publicly acknowledged an entrance into an OTA with the DOE. Kurt Terrani, CEO of Standard Nuclear, said the company was “the first TRISO fuel manufacturer to execute an agreement of this kind with the Department of Energy ahead of next year’s reactor demonstrations.”
Background: As its name might imply, an OTA can broadly be thought of as what it is not. It is an agreement that is not a contract, grant, or cooperative agreement between a private company and an agency within the federal government. As such, OTAs are not subject to some regulations like the Federal Acquisition Regulation. Parties involved in OTAs generally cite its flexibility as a primary benefit. Only Other Transaction Authorities are able to enter into OTAs, and only about 20 federal agencies—including the DOE—are approved by Congress as Other Transaction Authorities.
Pilot details: The demonstrations to which Terrani referred are those progressing through the Reactor Pilot Program, in which 10 companies have been selected for a race to get an advanced reactor on line by July 4, 2026. At ANS’s recent 2025 Winter Conference and Expo, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the DOE is committed to getting at least one or two demonstrations on line by that deadline—a slight pullback from the program’s original goal of getting three reactors on line within the year.
Like the program it has been created to support, the Fuel Line Pilot Program seeks to accelerate the deployment of fuel fabrication facilities by having them progress through DOE authorization rather than Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval. Both programs were set in motion by President Trump’s May 23 Executive Order 14301, “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy.”
The DOE has also notably made conditional commitments to provide Standard Nuclear (among seven other companies) with HALEU to further aid the development of its TRISO production technology. That technology was originally developed by the now bankrupt Ultra Safe Nuclear.
Quotable: Jess Gehin, associate laboratory director of INL said, “The advanced reactor and fuel technologies now moving into deployment all originate from decades of DOE research and development. Supporting industry through full demonstration and commercialization is central to our mission.”