TRISO and advanced nuclear fuel fabrication plants, licensing milestones and fuel qualification
BWXT Advanced Fuels will supply Antares Nuclear with HALEU TRISO fuel for microreactors through the end of the decade, starting with a one-metric-ton allocation. The fuel will be made at BWXT's Lynchburg plant on the same line used for Project Pele and Antares' Mark-0.
Antares has signed a multi-year commercial agreement with BWX Technologies for TRISO fuel fabricated from HALEU, starting with a one-metric-ton allocation and running through the end of the decade.
Antares has signed a multi-year TRISO fabrication agreement with BWX Technologies and a separate deal with Standard Nuclear covering up to 8 MTU through 2035, backed by a HALEU supply contract with Centrus.
Westinghouse will invest roughly $1 billion in a new LEU+ fuel manufacturing facility at its Columbia complex in Hopkins, South Carolina, with production scheduled to begin in 2030.
Westinghouse will invest $1 billion in a new South Carolina plant producing fuel enriched up to 8 percent U-235 at 600 metric tons of uranium per year from 2030, while Framatome is already licensed for LEU+ up to 10 percent at Richland, Washington.
Westinghouse will build a $1 billion LEU+ fuel plant at its Columbia site in Hopkins, South Carolina, targeting 600 metric tons of uranium per year from 2030 with enrichment up to 8 percent U-235.
Westinghouse will invest roughly $1 billion in a new LEU+ fuel manufacturing plant at its Columbia site in Hopkins, South Carolina, targeting commercial production from 2030 and fuel enriched to 5–8% U-235.
Six companies — BWXT, Centrus, Framatome, GE Vernova, Orano and Westinghouse — have been selected for HALEU deconversion work worth up to $800 million, bridging UF6 output and reactor fuel.
NANO Nuclear Energy and its subsidiary HALEU Energy Fuel signed a definitive agreement to acquire NRC-licensed fuel processing assets, including a licence for a never-built DUF6 deconversion and fluorine extraction facility in New Mexico.
Advanced fuel fabrication facilities are achieving major milestones, with X-Energy completing a massive building, Kairos Power automating pebble inspections, and NANO Nuclear planning a new HALEU site.
Advanced reactor developers TerraPower and X-energy have shared significant updates on their projects, including TerraPower's HALEU offtake agreements and X-energy's Xe-100 Dow Seadrift concept, highlighting the growing fuel demand.
The HALEU fuel fabrication sector is seeing significant progress as X-Energy completes its TX-1 facility building, Kairos Power automates TRISO fuel pebble inspections, and Framatome invests in HALEU capabilities. These milestones address the IAEA's warnings on insufficient industrial capacity.