Fuel

Centrus Energy Corp. is planning a major expansion of its Oak Ridge, Tenn., Technology and Manufacturing Center. The build-out would allow it to expedite large-scale deployment of centrifuges.

Amir Vexler, Centrus president and CEO, announced the expansion on January 23, along with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Deputy Gov. Stuart McWhorter.

Kairos Power has finalized a contract with the Department of Energy to receive high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) from the agency for the company’s Hermes low-power demonstration reactor, currently under construction in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

In partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory, Kairos intends to use the DOE-provided material to produce HALEU TRISO fuel pebbles for Hermes. The company views the Hermes test reactor and the fuel fabrication program as crucial to the eventual success of its power-producing Hermes 2 demonstration plant, also to be sited in Oak Ridge, and future commercial fluoride salt–cooled high-temperature reactors.

On January 16, Tenn. Gov. Bill Lee, Deputy Gov. Stuart McWhorter, and officials from Laser Isotope Separation Technologies announced the company’s plans to expand in Oak Ridge, Tenn. That expansion will come with a $1.38 billion investment from LIS Technologies for what the company says will be the first commercial laser uranium enrichment plant in the United States.

Analyst firm Trading Economics posted a uranium futures value of about $82.00 per pound on January 5—the highest futures value in more than two months.

In late October, it had listed a futures price of about $82.30/lb. By late November, the price had fallen to under $76.00/lb.

Yesterday, the Department of Energy announced that three enrichment services companies have been awarded task orders worth $900 million each. Those task orders were given to American Centrifuge Operating (a Centrus Energy subsidiary) and General Matter, both of which will develop domestic HALEU enrichment capacity, along with Orano Federal Services, which will build domestic LEU enrichment capacity.

The DOE also announced that it has awarded Global Laser Enrichment an additional $28 million to continue advancing next generation enrichment technology.

Urenco USA has highlighted the completion of a successful year of advancing nuclear fuel supply in the U.S. by achieving two new milestones this month: The first production of enriched uranium above 5 percent uranium-235, and the startup of the company’s next cascade of centrifuges as part of its capacity installation program.

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.

Five companies are the recipients of Department of Energy awards to support the development, modification, and licensing of transportation packages for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel. HALEU, which is enriched between 5 percent and 20 percent, is the type of fuel required for the operation of many of the small advanced nuclear reactors that are being designed and developed by U.S. companies.

U.K.-based Perpetual Atomics and U.S.-based QSA Global claim to have achieved a major step forward in processing americium dioxide to fuel radioisotope power systems used in space missions. Using an industrially scalable process, the companies said they have turned americium into stable, large-scale ceramic pellets that can be directly integrated into sealed sources for radioisotope power systems, including radioisotope heater units (RHUs) and radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs).

Idaho National Laboratory has announced the creation of the first batch of enriched uranium chloride fuel salt for the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE). INL said that its fuel production team delivered the first fuel salt batch at the end of September, and it intends to produce four additional batches by March 2026. MCRE will require a total of 72–75 batches of fuel salt for the reactor to go critical.

The spot price of uranium at the end of November declined to $75.80 per pound, down from $80.00/lb at the end of October, according to uranium company Cameco. The high-water mark this year was in September, at $82.63/lb. The lowest price of 2025 was at the end of March, at $64.23/lb.

This week, BWX Technologies, alongside Idaho National Laboratory and the Department of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office, announced the arrival of a full core of TRISO fuel at INL’s Transient Reactor Test Facility.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is inviting young professionals under 35 years of age to submit essays on innovations in the nuclear fuel supply chain, covering topics from uranium exploration to the recycling of spent nuclear fuel.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy is requesting comments on a draft voluntary agreement for the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Defense Production Act (DPA) Consortium, with a short deadline of November 24 for comments.

Notice of the request for comments, along with the text of the draft voluntary agreement, was published in the November 17 Federal Register.

Due to the days lost to the government shutdown, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the public comment period for a draft environmental impact statement for the TX-1 advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility being built in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Small modular reactor developer X-energy and its subsidiary TRISO-X announced yesterday the start of aboveground construction for its TX-1 advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.  The first-in-the-nation facility will be the first of two Oak Ridge facilities built to manufacture the company’s TRISO fuel for use in its Xe-100 SMR.

The Department of Energy’s Idaho Operations Office has approved the Nuclear Safety Design Agreement (NSDA) for Oklo Inc.’s Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility (A3F) at Idaho National Laboratory. The A3F is being built to fabricate fuel assemblies for Oklo’s Aurora Powerhouse, a liquid metal–cooled, metal-fueled fast reactor with a maximum power of 75 MWe.

Advanced reactor and fuel developer X-energy has officially begun confirmatory irradiation testing at Idaho National Laboratory on its TRISO-X fuel. The testing, which is taking place over the course of the next 13 months, will evaluate the fuel across a variety of operating scenarios and—if all goes according to plan—will be instrumental in qualifying it for commercial use.

An end-of-October spot price for uranium of $80.00 per pound—down from the year high of $82.63 per pound in September—is still substantially higher than the year’s lowest price of $64.23 per pound at the end of March, according to uranium fuel provider Cameco.

Dale Klein

This article was adapted from the author’s speech during a plenary at the 21st International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM 2025), San Antonio, Texas, July 2025.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about reforming the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But I want to be clear: When it comes to nuclear safety and security, there is no place for partisan politics. I support efforts to streamline regulatory processes, but the independence and integrity of the NRC must remain sacrosanct. If we are serious about expanding nuclear power and reclaiming our global leadership in nuclear technology, having a strong independent regulator is fundamental.

Right now, we’re on the edge of a global nuclear resurgence driven by rising demand from data centers, growing concerns about energy security, and the need to decarbonize industry.