Orano begins production of LEU+ transport cylinders

Wednesday, 21 May 2025

The company made the announcement at the World Nuclear Supply Chain conference taking place in Warsaw, Poland.

The Type 30B cylinders that are currently used to transport enriched uranium hexafluoride (UF6) between fuel cycle facilities around the world are only certified for uranium enriched up to 5% in the fissile uranium-235 isotope, known as low-enriched uranium, or LEU. This is the maximum enrichment level used in commercially operating nuclear power plants today. But nuclear fuels with higher enrichment levels which can enable commercial light water reactors to operate for longer, and more efficiently are being developed. Known as LEU+, such material contains enrichments of 5-10% uranium-235 - outside the certification of regular Type 30B cylinders.

New fuel designs - as well as the evolution of the small modular reactor market, which will require enrichments of up to 20% - mean new solutions will be required for the transport of uranium enriched to up to 20% - and these solutions are not currently available on the market, Orano said.

Supply chain issues relating to the transport solutions for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) have already been felt - in February 2024 US enrichment company Centrus said delays in the availability of suitable cylinders for the HALEU output from its plant in Ohio would affect its ability to deliver 900 kilograms of HALEU UF6 under a contract with the US Department of Energy.

For transportation, type 30B cylinders are used in conjunction with a protective structural packaging, or overpack, which offers protection against mechanical and thermal impacts due to possible accidents during transportation. 

Orano's 30B-10 cylinder - which the company has also previously referred to as the 30B-X - equips the innovative DN30-X package which was licensed in March 2023 by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The DN30-X package combines the properties of the existing DN30 overpack with the new 30B-10 cylinder, which contains a criticality control system using borated steel rods to prevent criticality and enable higher enrichments of UF6 to be transported safely.