2h agoNuclear News
TerraPower announced today that it has signed a term sheet with ASP Isotopes Inc. as the first step of a planned investment in the construction of a high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment facility and the eventual purchase of HALEU produced at the facility to fuel its Natrium fast reactors. What TerraPower is after: Nonnuclear construction activities began this summer at the Wyoming site where TerraPower is building its first 345-MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor Natrium plant with support from a public-private partnership with the Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. Natrium needs metallic HALEU fuel, and despite action by the DOE to set up a HALEU Availability Program for enrichment and deconversion, it’s not yet clear when TerraPower will obtain enough HALEU to fuel the reactor.
“TerraPower has been working diligently to ensure a stable, secure HALEU supply chain for our Natrium reactors. This agreement is another example of our commitment and investments to commercialize HALEU production domestically and in allied countries,” said Chris Levesque, TerraPower president and chief executive officer. “We are optimistic about ASP Isotopes' enrichment capabilities and planned timeline to help ensure advanced nuclear energy can achieve its necessary role in meeting climate energy targets.”
ASP Isotopes said in a November 2023 press release that it was “in active discussions with various regulatory bodies and governments to determine the location for its first HALEU production facility. Their aim is to supply commercial quantities of HALEU for SMRs by 2027.”
TerraPower notes that it has made agreements with fuel cycle companies in the United States and that it “remains an active member and participant of DOE’s HALEU Consortium.”
TerraPower has signed memoranda of understanding and agreements with Centrus, Framatome, and Uranium Energy Corporation. Regardless of how it sources uranium feedstock, TerraPower expects to fabricate its fuel at a Natrium fuel facility on a Global Nuclear Fuel–Americas site in Wilmington, N.C.
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