Inside a highly classified facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, workers are transforming old, unexploded warheads into fuel that will power cities. The recipe involves melting weapons-grade uranium with low-enriched uranium in a crucible, creating advanced reactor fuel. This process is crucial for powering the next generation of nuclear reactors – small, modular power stations that require less maintenance and physical space.
The United States currently relies heavily on Russia for enriched uranium, but a bipartisan law passed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put an end to this arrangement. To address this shortage, scientists and companies are racing to produce enriched uranium domestically. The Energy Department is expected to award over $2 billion in the coming months to uranium enrichment companies to kickstart the supply chain.
The US is also scouring its nuclear stockpile for suitable fuel that might have slipped through the cracks. The Idaho National Laboratory is downblending part of its collection of fuel from research reactors, and the federal government is expected to award funds to uranium enrichment companies to help meet demand.
However, the amount of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) the US can get from its nuclear weapon stockpile is relatively small. It will need a bigger production line to meet the needs of advanced reactor companies like TerraPower, which recently broke ground in Wyoming.
The US currently gets around 20% of its power from nuclear energy, and there’s high interest within the Energy Department to increase this percentage in the coming years. Nuclear energy is reliable and doesn’t produce climate pollution, making it an attractive option for meeting energy security needs and climate goals.
The nuclear power industry is increasingly looking to smaller reactors that run on HALEU, which can last longer than conventional ones and fit into smaller spaces. Enrichment companies like Centrus are working to restore a domestic enrichment capability with US technology to meet demand for electricity and national security.
While the country’s leftover nuclear arsenal will contribute six tons of HALEU by 2027, this is far from enough to meet the needs of advanced nuclear projects in the US. It will take years to develop a sufficient domestic supply chain, but the Energy Department estimates that the advanced nuclear industry will need 40 tons of HALEU by 2030.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/09/climate/nuclear-warheads-haleu/index.html