The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) has issued a draft request for proposal for the stand-alone management and operations (M&O) contract for Savannah River National Laboratory, located at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. The five-year contract, with possible award terms of up to five additional years, is anticipated to have a value of approximately $381 million a year.

Advanced reactor cores are being designed for higher efficiencies and longer lifetimes, but to get there, they need high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU).

Enriched to between 5 and 19.75 percent fissile U-235, HALEU is packed with nuclear potential. It can be used as a feedstock for the demonstration of new fuel designs, from uranium alloys to ceramic pellets and liquid fuels. Those fuels can enable advanced reactor and microreactor demonstrations. Operating light-water reactors could potentially transition to HALEU uranium oxide fuels for extended operating cycles and improved plant economics.