US-based TerraPower has signed a term sheet (non-binding agreement or letter of intent) with ASP Isotopes for the construction of a uranium enrichment facility in South Africa and a fuel supply agreement for its Natrium reactor. The term sheet aims to expand global production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). TerraPower plans to invest in the construction of a HALEU enrichment facility in South Africa from which it would purchase fuel for the Natrium reactor and energy storage system being developed at Kemmerer in Wyoming.
The Natrium technology features a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt-based energy storage system. The Natrium demonstration project is being constructed near a retiring coal facility in Wyoming. Non-nuclear construction on the project began in June 2024. The plant is being developed through a public-private partnership with the US Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).
“TerraPower has been working diligently to ensure a stable, secure HALEU supply chain for our Natrium reactors. This agreement is another example of our commitment and investments to commercialise HALEU production domestically and in allied countries,” said TerraPower President & CEO Chris Levesque. “We are optimistic about ASP Isotopes enrichment capabilities and planned timeline to help ensure advanced nuclear energy can achieve its necessary role in meeting climate energy targets.”
Once enriched, Natrium’s fuel will be fabricated at the Natrium Fuel Facility in Wilmington, North Carolina, which is under development at the Global Nuclear Fuel–Americas site through a significant investment by TerraPower and the United States Department of Energy (DOE). TerraPower also remains an active member and participant of DOE’s HALEU Consortium.
TerraPower has also made multiple strategic agreements and investments to help spur domestic production capabilities in the US. These include MOUs and agreements with Centrus for HALEU commercialisation, with Framatome to develop a HALEU metallisation plant and with Uranium Energy Corporation to explore the use of Wyoming uranium as a potential fuel source for Natrium plants.
ASP Isotopes is an advanced materials company developing technology and processes for the production of isotopes for use in multiple industries. The construction of the HALEU uranium enrichment facility and the future supply of HALEU to TerraPower, will be the undertaken by ASP subsidiary Quantum Leap Energy (QLE).
ASP says the term sheet contemplates the preparation of definitive agreements whereby TerraPower would provide funding for the construction of a HALEU production facility. In addition, the parties anticipate entering into a long-term supply agreement for the HALEU expected to be produced at this facility under which the customer would purchase all the HALEU produced at the facility over a 10-year period after completion of the facility.
The term sheet contains non-binding and binding provisions, including a period of exclusivity during which ASP Isotopes will not negotiate with third parties for the supply of HALEU or work on another ASP technology-based uranium enrichment facility. ASP is also in discussions with certain financial institutions to provide additional capital for this HALEU production facility.
ASP believes that its enrichment technologies can be deployed in a new HALEU facility for considerably lower capital costs, and in much less time, compared with the construction of an enrichment facility using a traditional centrifuge process. The Company has already constructed or is in the process of constructing three isotope enrichment facilities in South Africa. The first facility is expected to enrich Carbon-14 for use in healthcare and agrochemicals. The second is expected to enrich Silicon-28 to enable faster, more efficient semiconductors for use in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The third facility is expected to enrich Ytterbium-176, used in the production of cancer therapies.
ASP employs proprietary technology – the Aerodynamic Separation Process. While the initial focus is on producing and commercialising highly enriched isotopes for the healthcare and technology industries, the company plans to enrich isotopes for the nuclear energy sector using Quantum Enrichment technology that the Company is developing. The Company has isotope enrichment facilities in Pretoria, South Africa, dedicated to the enrichment of isotopes of elements with a low atomic mass (light isotopes).
ASP Isotopes (ASPI) was incorporated in 2021 although its origins date back to South Africa’s uranium enrichment programme in the 1980s. The company comprises: ASP Isotopes (Delaware, US) – enrichment of stable isotopes for use in the medical and semiconductor industries; PET Labs (Pty) Ltd (South Africa) – provision of nuclear medicine services in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa (ASPI purchased 51% majority stake in PET Labs in November 2023); Quantum Leap Energy LLC (Delaware, US) – development and production of future nuclear fuels (HALEU, Lithium 6 and 7, Chlorine 37); and Quantum Leap Energy (UK) Ltd.
“Over the last several decades, the scientists at ASP Isotopes have developed some of the world’s most advanced isotope enrichment technologies,” said ASP Isotopes Chairman & CEO Paul Mann. “This term sheet is further validation of our belief that ASP Isotopes can offer scalable and capital efficient technology solutions to the supply challenges which exist in global isotope markets.”
