Biden-Harris Administration Takes Action to Secure Nuclear Fuel Supply Chain, Equip Revitalized Domestic Nuclear Industry for the Future
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Over the past several years, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken critical steps both to establish an advanced nuclear fuel supply chain in the U.S. and to reestablish U.S. leadership in nuclear energy more broadly. These steps include support to keep existing nuclear plants from shutting down, funding demonstrations for advanced reactor designs, streamlining the permitting process through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, highlighting the potential transition of retiring coal plants into advanced nuclear facilities, and securing government-led investments to catalyze an unprecedented expansion of U.S.-based commercial uranium enrichment capacity.
A domestic nuclear fuel supply chain will be crucial to deliver the low-enriched uranium (LEU) and high-assay low enriched-uranium (HALEU) required to fuel our fleet of current and future reactors. Currently, Russia supplies approximately 44% of global uranium enrichment services and 20–30% of enriched uranium product used in the U.S. and Europe. The Biden-Harris Administration has been working to sever this dependency to secure our energy future. Expanding domestic LEU and HALEU enrichment production will be essential for fueling the clean energy required to bring down emissions in all sectors of the economy—including in hard to abate sectors such as manufacturing and industrial—while delivering high paying jobs to communities across the country.
Closing of HALEU Request for Proposals (RFPs): As of March 22nd, the RFPs have closed for the purchase of enriched and deconverted HALEU to establish a HALEU supply chain in support of advanced reactors. DOE issued the two RFPs in quick succession, at the end of 2023 and start of 2024. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act provided $700 million for DOE’s HALEU Availability Program that includes these two RFPs.
Piketon Production of HALEU: The American Centrifuge Project has now enriched over 100 kilograms of HALEU at its plant in Piketon, OH, and is working toward an additional 900 kilograms. The Piketon plant began enrichment of the nation's first HALEU production in November, contributing to the effort to develop a supply chain of advanced nuclear fuel.
Joint “Sapporo Five” Agreement: The United States is working hand-in-glove with our partners and allies through a five-country group known as the “Sapporo 5,” established on the sidelines of the 2023 G7 Energy Ministerial in Sapporo. The Sapporo 5 includes the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, and Canada. These countries are working together to establish a secure and resilient global nuclear fuel supply chain to ensure continued operation and support the growth of nuclear energy deployment around the world free of Russian influence. On the margins of COP28, the Sapporo 5 also announced their intent to collectively mobilize and invest a combined $4.2 billion to expand enrichment and conversion capacity over the next three years.
We are pleased to note we have already exceeded this pledge. In support of this commitment, the French have mobilized $1.8 billion, the United Kingdom has pledged approximately $383 million, and the U.S. Congress has made available $2.72 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in the Fiscal Year 2024 Energy and Water Development package. The combined funding already exceeding the pledge made late last year.
The Sapporo 5 intend to meet again ahead of the IAEA General Conference in September to set new goals to realize the vision of this partnership.
Background on Biden-Harris Administration’s Actions to Advance Nuclear Energy
The Biden-Harris Administration is taking action both at home and abroad to position the domestic nuclear industry to swiftly and competitively meet President Biden’s clean energy objectives, including the COP28 multi-country declaration to triple nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050. Conditionally committed Inflation Reduction Act financing from the Loan Programs Office’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment program will allow for the restoration and resumption of service at an 800-MW electric nuclear generating station in Covert Township, Michigan, which had previously ceased operations in 2022.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $2.5 billion to the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program to fund the design and demonstration of two Generation IV advanced small modular reactors, anticipated to begin commercial operation by the early 2030s. The Inflation Reduction Act further included an eight-year production tax credit for qualifying existing nuclear power plants. New, advanced nuclear energy facilities also qualify under the new technology-neutral zero-emission production and investment tax credits in Inflation Reduction Act.
In October 2023, President Biden requested Congress provide $2.16 billion in supplemental funding, paired with a ban on Russian imports, to improve our long-term, domestic enrichment capabilities for low-enriched uranium including HALEU. On March 8th, 2024, Congress made available to the Department of Energy $2.72 billion to carry out the Nuclear Fuel Security Act of 2023 by establishing and expanding enrichment and conversion services to meet U.S. domestic nuclear fuel requirements while working with our allies and partners in the event of a supply disruption.
A 2022 DOE report additionally demonstrated the case for converting retiring coal plants into nuclear plants. DOE recently issued an information guide for communities considering coal-to-nuclear transitions that found transitioning from a coal plant to a nuclear one would create additional higher paying jobs at the plant, create hundreds of additional jobs locally, and spur millions of dollars in increased revenues and economic activity in the host community. Importantly, it also found that, with planning and support for training, most workers at an existing coal plant should be able to transition to work at a replacement nuclear plant.
Increasing access to clean, reliable energy sources, including nuclear energy, as quickly as possible, is both achievable and imperative. Years of cutting-edge, multidisciplinary R&D investments by the Department of Energy have paved the way for new and advanced nuclear technologies, which can provide clean and reliable power for power grids of any size. They partner well with other clean energy sources; can offer greater safety, including enhanced seismic resilience and smaller emergency evacuation zones; and are ideally suited to help meet our climate goals, strengthen and develop our domestic industries, and support energy security objectives.
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