The Department of Energy on Tuesday solicited bids for a contract under which it could acquire up to 145 metric tons of high assay low-enriched uranium to help commercialize nuclear reactors that need the fuel.
Under the contract, only U.S.-based companies will be allowed to perform the final step of enriching to the high assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) threshold of 19.75% uranium-235 by mass. However, the HALEU can be enriched from low-enriched uranium provided by “allied or partner nations,” according to the final solicitation from DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract will have a 10-year period of performance and a total value of up to $2.7 billion, which could be divvied up among multiple awardees via separate task orders. The task orders could include option periods. Proposals are due March 8.
According to the solicitation, DOE is looking for services including: mining of natural uranium with a preference for existing mines in the U.S., North America or U.S.-allied or partner countries; conversion of the natural uranium into uranium hexafluoride, with a preference to do the work in new or restored facilities in the U.S., North America or allied or partner countries; and enrichment.
The Office of Nuclear Energy planned to contract out the work of decoverting the enriched uranium into forms suitable for making reactor fuel under a separate contract for which it solicited bids in November.
The enrichment and deconversion contracts are part of DOE’s HALEU Availability Program, which Congress created in 2020. DOE says the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the second big economic stimulus package engineered by President Joe Biden’s (D) administration, authorized a total of $500 million in funding for both contracts.
