The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has established a consortium to work with U.S. nuclear fuel companies in an effort to increase domestic fuel availability.
Under DOE’s new Defense Production Act (DPA) Consortium, voluntary agreements will allow industry collaboration to create plans to secure the U.S. nuclear fuel supply chain capacity throughout the various stages of the fuel cycle, according to the Office of Nuclear Energy Aug. 22 press release.
DPA is a law, first enacted in 1950, that grants the president powers to mobilize domestic industrial bases to meet national defense needs during emergencies.
The consortium will work to ensure fuel cycle activities such as fuel fabrication, enrichment, and conversion are available to enable the continued reliable operation of the U.S. reactors, the Office of Nuclear Energy said.
The department will work with industry members in coming weeks to identify participants and long-term goals. The consortium’s membership is free to any U.S. company involved in the nuclear fuel cycle and is required approval by the Office of Nuclear Energy.
The first meeting of the DPA Consortium is on Oct. 14.
The nuclear agency issued an interim final rule Monday on the Federal Register and is seeking comments on the procedures and standards that it will use to implement voluntary agreements under DPA section 708, according to the press release.
The interim rule will be effective until Sept. 24 and public comments must be submitted by that date as well.
The consortium was created to help fill the gaps in the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle and reduce reliance on foreign nuclear supply, DOE said in the press release.
The DPA Consortium will operate separately from low-enriched uranium and high-assay low-enriched uranium procurement and allocation programs but may inform programmatic efforts, according to the press release.
