DOE rolling out document on HALEU preparation at SRS

The Department of Energy is publishing its Supplement Analysis and Amended Record of Decision for blending down roughly 2.2 metric tons of highly enriched uranium in order to make about 3.1 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

The document should soon be published in the Federal Register, DOE said in an email announcement on Tuesday afternoon.

The actions resulting from the amended decision should help meet the nation’s short-term need for HALEU until other commercial options can be brought online, DOE said.  

Federal officials have concluded no significant environmental harm should result and no further National Environmental Policy Act documentation is required, according to the announcement.

In the supplemental analysis document dated April 2025, DOE said  HALEU are being developed to help replace highly enriched uranium fuels used in high-performance research reactors as well as advanced nuclear power reactor designs.

Facilities at Savannah River’s H-Canyon were used for years to make 4.95% low enriched uranium (LEU) from spent nuclear fuel for the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) reactors. But “blend down capability has been shut down since the last shipment to TVA in 2011,” according to the supplemental analysis. But H-Canyon A Line facilities can be revamped to blend down the current inventory of high-enriched uranium solutions to HALEU, DOE said.

“DOE’s objective is to establish a temporary domestic demand for HALEU to support the availability of HALEU for civilian domestic commercial use and demonstration projects by engaging with industry and other stakeholders to enter into partnership and incentivize the establishment of a domestic HALEU fuel cycle,” according to the analysis. 

H-Canyon is currently the only operating production-scale, nuclear chemical separation facility in the United States, DOE said in the analysis.