The Department of Energy said Tuesday it has chosen four companies to participate in its pilot program to strengthen the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain.
According to DOE’s Tuesday press release, the winning companies are:
- Oklo, Santa Clara, Calif., to build and operate fuel fabrication facilities to support their Aurora and Pluto reactors.
- Terrestrial Energy, Charlotte, N.C., to create the Terrestrial Energy fuel line assembly to demonstrate a fuel salt fabrication process in a phased approach.
- TRISO-X, Oak Ridge, Tenn., to build and operate another fuel fabrication lab facility to enable pilot-scale integration, training and system validation to assist in the TX-1 commercial TRISO fuel fabrication facility.
- Valar Atomics, Hawthrone, Calif., to support TRISO fuel fabrication for Ward250 reactor deployment and possibly other high-temperature gas reactors.
This marks the second group of conditional selections under DOE’s nuclear fuel pilot program. Standard Nuclear was previously selected as the first in August.
Under the program, the companies will be responsible for all costs associated with construction, operation and decommissioning of an advanced nuclear fuel line, according to DOE. The companies will also be responsible for the acquisition of all nuclear materials.
“Restoring a secure domestic fuel supply will ensure that advanced reactors can move quickly from design to deployment and into operation,” Deputy Energy Secretary James Danly said in the release. “The ability to produce these fuels is essential to ensuring American leadership in nuclear energy and to meeting the nation’s growing demand for reliable power.”
The fuel pilot program also works to support DOE’s advanced reactor pilot program, which seeks to have at least three reactors reaching criticality by July 4, 2026.
Oklo, Terrestrial Energy and Valar Atomics were also selected for the reactor program.