DOE distributes cost-shared, $150M award for first domestic production of HALEU for advanced nuclear reactors
For the first time, American Centrifuge Operating, LLC seeks to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for advanced nuclear reactors domestically, and, in doing so, caught the interest of the U.S. Department of Energy – and a cost-shared, approximately $150 million award.
The award was announced last week for the subsidiary of the Centrus Energy Corporation. With this funding, American Centrifuge Operating hopes to build out HALEU at home and thereby cut the supply chain needed to develop and deploy advanced reactors in the U.S. Current knowledge posits HALEU as critical in most cases for reactors to be built smaller, operate longer, and increase efficiency compared to existing technology. The DOE also foresees this as a path to President Joe Biden’s clean energy goals, which include fully clean electricity by 2035.
“Reducing our reliance on adversarial nations for HALEU fuel and building up our domestic supply chain will allow the U.S. to grow our advanced reactor fleet and provide Americans with more clean, affordable power,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “This demonstration shows DOE’s commitment to working with industry partners to kickstart HALEU production at commercial scale to create more clean energy jobs and ensure the benefits of nuclear energy are accessible to all Americans.”
While not currently available at commercial scale domestically, DOE projects that more than 40 metric tons of HALEU will be needed before 2030. Needs are likely to increase annually to deploy a new fleet of advanced reactors promoted by the White House.
Efforts by American Centrifuge Operating will culminate in a cascade demonstration program to support fuel qualification testing, DOE-supported advanced reactor demonstration projects, and overall, to address near-term HALEU needs. Some $30 million of the cost-share in this first year will be predicated on the company starting and operating 16 advanced centrifuges at an enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio, owned by DOE, following an operational readiness review. From there, the demonstration cascade will be fired up to enrich uranium hexafluoride gas and produce 20 kg of HALEU by Dec. 31, 2023.
After that, HALEU production will continue at an annual rate of 900 kg, subject to appropriations and the potential for more material under contract. Congressional appropriations will form the basis of the contract’s duration through the availability of funding. American Centrifuge Operating previously spent years manufacturing and assembling the centrifuge enrichment cascade at the Ohio facility but did not install the centrifuge rotors until the DOE’s competition for this latest award was completed.
Once the HALU production in Ohio has been demonstrated, the centrifuge technology used will be made available for commercial deployment.
