The Department of Energy on Tuesday solicited bids for a potentially decade-long contract to convert high assay low-enriched uranium into forms suitable for powering new nuclear reactors.
The High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) Deconversion Acquisition will be an indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery contract with a one-year ordering period, according to the solicitation posted online.
Work will be done under task orders lasting up to five years and performed on a fixed-price, cost-plus fixed-fee or other basis, according to the solicitation. In a press release Tuesday, DOE said it anticipates multiple awards. The deconversion contract is one of two the agency planned to solicit this year to jumpstart commercialization of advanced nuclear reactors.
“The deconversion task includes the annual receipt of up to 6 MTU [metric tons of uranium] of HALEU in the UF6 [uranium hexafluoride] format, deconversion of 3 MTU to metal and 3 MTU to oxide, the packaging of the resulting metal and oxide products, and storage in the Contractor’s facility(ies),” DOE wrote in the solicitation.
The solicitation does not say when the deconversion work will begin. Bids are due to DOE on Jan. 30 by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time.
The final deconversion solicitation hit the streets a little less than six months after a draft solicitation landed. The contract is one part of the Joe Biden (D) administration’s HALEU Availability Program, which received $700 million in 2022 in the Inflation Reduction Act.
DOE’s other planned HALEU availability contract will focus on enriching uranium to 19.75% uranium 235 by mass. The agency had not released a final solicitation for that work as of Tuesday. The enrichment contract is separate from Centrus Energy Corp.’s deal to produce HALEU using a new 16-machine cascade at DOE’s Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio.
