DOE selects HALEU enrichment providers

Friday, 18 October 2024

The companies have been awarded contracts worth a minimum of USD2 million each, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. This will create strong competition and allow the Department of Energy (DOE) "to select the best fit for future work", it said. All contracts will last for up to 10 years. Up to USD2.7 billion will be available for these services, subject to the availability of appropriations. Under the contracts, "selected companies" will bid on future work to produce and store high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) in the form of uranium hexafluoride gas to eventually be made into fuel for advanced reactors, DOE said.

HALEU - uranium enriched to contain between 5% and 20% uranium-235 - will be used by many advanced reactors which are seen as essential to the USA's clean energy future and meeting its clean energy and climate goals. But the country currently lacks commercial HALEU enrichment capabilities to support the deployment of advanced reactors. These contracts are part of efforts by the US Administration to build a secure domestic HALEU supply chain, and follow the recent announcement of contracts to support HALEU deconversion services.

The HALEU acquired by DOE through these contracts will be used to support reactors such as TerraPower's Natrium reactor and X-energy's Xe-100, which are being developed through DOE's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

Orano and American Centrifuge Operating parent company Centrus were among the six companies who were awarded DOE contracts worth a minimum of USD2 million each to provide HALEU deconversion services. The company said its "robust and integrated solution for HALEU", including enrichment and deconversion, would be located on its preferred site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where it plans to build a new centrifuge uranium enrichment facility.

"As a successful, global leader for uranium chemistry, enrichment, and delivery, we have been participating from the very beginning in the DOE's process for developing US HALEU capacity that is reliable, diversified, and commercially viable,” Orano USA CEO Jean-Luc Palayer said. "With the quickly growing demand for clean, steady nuclear energy in our nation, and most recently from top tech companies for energy-hungry AI and data centres, it is essential for the nuclear industry, with the support from DOE, to establish the needed HALEU supply chain now to be ready for powering advanced reactors."

Centrus is already producing HALEU for the DOE under a two-phase cost-share contract signed in 2022: it made its first delivery of 20 kg of HALEU produced at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, to the DOE in November last year. It then moved onto the second phase of the contract, a full year of HALEU production at the 900 kg per year plant.

The latest award could facilitate the potential expansion of Centrus's HALEU production capacity, said Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler. He added: "It represents a critical piece of the public-private partnership we are working to build so that we can restore a robust, American-owned uranium enrichment capability to power the future of nuclear energy."

American Centrifuge Operating will manufacture the centrifuges and supporting equipment exclusively in the USA, relying upon domestic engineering and an existing domestic supply chain that is expected to grow, the company said.

Louisiana Energy Services is the operator of Urenco USA's centrifuge enrichment plant in Eunice, New Mexico, the only commercial enrichment capacity currently operating in North America, which is already being expanded to meet further demand. The company is also in the licensing process to increase enrichment levels up to 10% to produce so-called low enriched uranium+ - or LEU+ - to support the existing and next generation reactors, which the company says is an important stepping stone towards the production of HALEU.

"We welcome this award and support the Department of Energy's efforts to help accelerate the development of a HALEU commercial market and in-turn the development of the next generation of nuclear power plants," Managing Director of Urenco USA John Kirkpatrick said.

The fourth company named as an awardee by DOE is General Matter. According to publicly available information, General Matter Inc is a company that was registered in California earlier this year, with Scott Nolan named as its CEO. Nolan, a former SpaceX employee, is a partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund which was co-founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel.

On 30 September, the Financial Times reported that Founders Fund was backing a nuclear start-up seeking to create a new production method for HEU. Citing "people familiar with the matter", the newspaper said the venture was "at an early stage but is already staffed by nuclear industry veterans and SpaceX engineers".