Fuel

X-energy subsidiary TRISO-X has received an economic development grant valued at $11 million from Tennessee’s Nuclear Energy Supply Chain Investment Fund, which was established in 2023 to “support nuclear energy business investment, workforce development programs, and site development across Tennessee.” The grant will be used for the ongoing construction of TRISO-X’s fuel fabrication campus at the Horizon Center Industrial Park in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

At the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam, the Indian Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has inaugurated a hydrogen production facility based on the copper-chlorine thermochemical cycle that uses nuclear process heat generated by the fast breeder test reactor (FBTR).

Following up on an agreement that was signed 12 years ago, Australia and India have finalized the details by which Australian uranium will be exported to India for peaceful purposes and under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Administrative Arrangement to enable the long-term exports was reached at the Third India–Australia Annual Summit, held in Melbourne on July 9. The summit coincided with a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The quest of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to find a private-sector partner to design, build, and operate a commercial-scale facility to recycle defense-related used fuel at Idaho National Laboratory has transitioned to the review and selection phase, the DOE said July 7. Responses to a request for applications were due on June 19.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) has implemented a pilot program that introduces a new approach to maintenance planning and control processes at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. The program, which is initially being used to support environmental management operations at the SRS H Canyon complex, is a “graded, risk-based approach that prioritizes urgency and aligns controls with three defined hazard levels [low, medium, and high].”

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has released its Domestic Uranium Production Report for the first quarter of 2026. According to the report, U.S. production of uranium concentrate (U₃O₈) during the first quarter of this year totaled 1,039,075 pounds, representing a 0.4 percent decrease from the fourth quarter of 2025, when U₃O₈ production totaled 1,043,474 pounds. However, the 2026 first-quarter production was the highest first-quarter production amount recorded since 2015, when 1,154,408 pounds were produced.

In the latest twist in a long-term, multistep contracting arrangement with the Department of Energy, Centrus Energy has signed a contract to finalize terms of a $900 million DOE task order to expand production capacity for high-assay low-enriched uranium at its American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The expansion is part of Centrus’s multibillion-dollar capacity expansion that also includes low-enriched uranium.

The new DOE award allows the company to transition its HALEU production cascade to a commercial-scale operation at Piketon. The contract also includes options for as much $170 million in HALEU purchases for DOE missions, for a total contract value of $1.07 billion. Those options are subject to the discretion of DOE.

Responding to several executive orders and the ADVANCE Act of 2024, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to modernize its fuel cycle and materials licensing requirements by amending its regulations for byproduct, source, and special nuclear material.

According to the agency, the sweeping regulatory changes are deregulatory in nature and aimed at accelerating the deployment of next-generation nuclear technologies with a streamlined licensing pathway for nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities and updated requirements for advanced reactor fuels.

EnCore Energy announced on June 18 that the Bureau of Land Management issued a final decision and approved the Dewey Burdock uranium project, authorizing the company to begin construction for the uranium in situ recovery project in southwestern South Dakota.

Oklo announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Standard Nuclear to explore commercial collaboration on nuclear fuel recycling and advanced fuel manufacturing. According to Oklo, the collaboration with TRISO fuel fabricator Standard Nuclear represents the company’s first third-party offtake pathway for recycled nuclear materials, including surplus U.S. plutonium.

Molten salt reactor developer Natura Resources announced that it has entered into a formal agreement with New York–based start-up Quadrant Nuclear Industries to receive high-assay low-enriched uranium for Natura’s commercial reactor systems.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is to prepare an environmental impact statement in its review of Orano Enrichment’s license application to build and operate a new uranium enrichment facility near Oak Ridge, Tenn., and is asking the public for comments on the scope of its environmental review.

Urenco USA announced today that it will expand its uranium enrichment capacity by nearly 50 percent with the construction of a new enrichment plant at the company’s National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, N.M.

Washington, D.C.-based Curio announced yesterday that it has submitted a letter of intent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to establish a docket for preapplication engagement activities and ultimately the submittal and review of a license application to operate a spent nuclear fuel recycling production facility.

Once a docket is established, Curio will develop a license application to meet all applicable regulations for a nuclear fuel recycling facility under 10 CFR Part 70.

Nuclear start-ups Oklo and Flibe Energy both announced this week that they have been selected by the Department of Energy for advanced negotiations under the department’s Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program, which aims to make surplus U.S. plutonium available to the nuclear industry for advanced reactor fuels.

According to multiple reports, three other companies—Exodys Energy, Shine Technologies, and Standard Nuclear—have also been selected for advanced negotiations under the program, which is being led by the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it intends to complete its review of Orano Enrichment’s license application to build and operate a new uranium enrichment facility near Oak Ridge, Tenn., in 12 months. Orano submitted its application for the multibillion-dollar facility, named Project Ike, in March.

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced last week that it has transferred 1.7 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium from Japan to the United States.

Framatome announced this week that its nuclear fuel manufacturing facility in Richland, Wash., has received Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a license amendment supporting fabrication of nuclear fuel with enrichment levels above 5 percent uranium-235, with manufacturing scheduled to begin in 2027.

The end-of-April spot price for uranium was $86.35 per pound, according to uranium fuel provider Cameco. While up slightly from the $84.25 of a month before, it was still lower than the $94.28 spot price at the end of January.

Ur-Energy Inc. announced last week that it has begun in situ recovery (ISR) operations at its Shirley Basin uranium mining site in central Wyoming.

The company, which also operates the Lost Creek ISR project in south-central Wyoming, decided to begin construction at Shirley Basin after making a “go” decision in March 2024. It has said that the combined total annual licensed production and toll processing capacity of Lost Creek and Shirley Basin is 4.2 million pounds U₃O₈.