The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is making headway on its solicitation for a venture that would demonstrate recycling of defense-related spent fuel to extract high-assay-low-enriched-uranium (HALEU) fuel for advanced reactors.
DOE announced the request for applications (RFA) in April for the demo project at the Idaho National Laboratory.
An Industry Day was held May 27 in Idaho Falls and the bidding was scheduled to close last Friday, June 19, according to an updated online procurement notice last week.
DOE plans to use a long-term lease to make available land on the north side of the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) for construction of the new project.
During the project’s early stages, EM plans to provide unused nuclear fuel from the DOE laboratory’s Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). Currently there are 3,400 such elements stored at the site.
“Teaming is strongly encouraged; however, due to the classified nature of the material being reprocessed or potentially reprocessed, any scope for a non-U.S. company must clearly be defined to ensure compliance with national security concerns,” according to the latest notice. “All staff working on the project must be capable of being granted requisite security clearance” for the project.
DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy is also pursuing a companion demonstration project for commercial spent fuel.