The US Department of Energy (DOE) has received a $150 million cost-shared award with American Centrifuge Operating of Bethesda, Maryland (a subsidiary of Centrus Energy Corp) to demonstrate the USA’s ability to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), “a crucial material needed to develop and deploy advanced reactors in the United States”. HALEU is required by most US advanced reactors to achieve smaller designs, longer operating cycles, and increased efficiencies over current technologies, DOE noted. However, HALEU is not currently available at commercial scale from domestic suppliers, which “could significantly impact the development and deployment of US advanced reactors”. Advancing domestic capability to produce HALEU will set the stage for larger, commercial-scale HALEU production in the US. “This will allow nuclear facilities to power even more homes and businesses with clean, affordable energy while playing a critical role in reaching President Biden’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035,” DOE said.   

“Reducing our reliance on adversarial nations for HALEU fuel and building up our domestic supply chain will allow the US to grow our advanced reactor fleet and provide Americans with more clean, affordable power,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M Granholm. “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.”

Next steps include “implementing President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act funding to support the actions authorised in the Energy Act of 2020 for production of HALEU”. DOE projects that more than 40 metric tons of HALEU will be needed before the end of the decade, with additional amounts required each year, to deploy a new fleet of advanced reactors to support the 100% clean electricity by 2035.

“Establishing a sustainable commercial HALEU production is essential to meeting our long-term objectives. The cascade demonstration programme is intended to address near-term HALEU needs and will be used to support fuel qualification testing and DOE-supported advanced reactor demonstration projects.”

The award includes a $30 million cost share during the first year to start up and operate 16 advanced centrifuges in a cascade at an enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. American Centrifuge Operating will complete the final steps of centrifuge assembly and clear an operational readiness review to start up the demonstration cascade.

They will meet the demonstration requirements by enriching uranium hexafluoride gas to produce 20 kilograms of 19.75% enriched HALEU by December 31, 2023. They will then continue production in 2024 at an annual production rate of 900 kilograms of HALEU a year, subject to appropriations, with additional options to produce more material under the contract in future years. Annual Congressional appropriations will inform the duration of the contract based on the availability of funding.

This award builds on DOE’s three-year cascade demonstration programme with American Centrifuge Operating, to manufacture and demonstrate the centrifuge enrichment cascade. The cascade was assembled at the Department’s enrichment facility in Piketon, which is currently the only US plant licensed to produce HALEU. Centrus completed manufacture and most of the assembly but did not install the centrifuge rotors into the demonstration cascade while the Department conducted this competition.

DOE is pursuing multiple pathways to produce HALEU through its HALEU Availability Program, authorised by the Energy Act of 2020 to meet this pressing need. Following the demonstration, the centrifuge technology used at the facility will be available for commercial deployment.

Image: AC-100M centrifuge assembly (courtesy of Centrus Energy)