Entities hoping to convert energy-dense uranium into a form suitable for powering advanced reactors have two more weeks to prepare the bids for the Department of Energy, the agency said last week.
Bids for the High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) Deconversion Acquisition are now due Feb. 13 instead of Jan. 30, the agency wrote in a procurement note posted online Dec. 13. DOE is trying to jump start deployment of advanced nuclear reactors that require HALEU for fuel.
In a list of agency answers to questions posed by interested parties, DOE also said it could make awards “less than 270 days after proposals are due,” which counting weekends and holidays translates to early November.
Meanwhile, DOE is working on a required environmental review of the deconversion project and estimates it will complete that work in 2024, according to the question-and-answer list the agency posted online last week.
The HALEU Deconversion Acquisition is an indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery contract with a one-year ordering period, five-year task orders and a total ceiling of $800 million, DOE said in its solicitation.
Under the Energy Act of 2020, the agency can run the HALEU deconversion program until Sept. 30, 2024 or until “90 days after the date on which HA–LEU is available to provide a reliable and adequate supply for civilian domestic advanced nuclear reactors in the commercial market,” whichever comes first.
There are no commercial reactors using HALEU in the U.S.
DOE anticipates teaming arrangement for the award and, in a revision to its solicitation posted online last week, redefined a major subcontractor as one “anticipated to exceed at least $50 million of the $800 million ceiling” of the contract.
The deconversion contract is one part of the Joe Biden (D) administration’s broader 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 Monday.
Both contracts are separate from Centrus Energy Corp.’s deal with DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy to produce HALEU using a new 16-machine cascade at the agency’s Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio.
