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The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for uranium enrichment services to help establish a reliable domestic supply of fuels using high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). Currently, HALEU is not commercially available from US-based suppliers, and boosting domestic supply is seen as vital for the development and deployment of advanced reactors in the US.

Date: Friday, 12 January 2024
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-doe-presses-ahead-with-haleu-development-11429515

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Savannah River Site (SRS) says the H Canyon facility recently initiated actions to recycle a small amount of used highly enriched uranium (HEU) stored in the Site’s H Area in order to down-blend it into high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU). “The projected demand for HALEU far exceeds the current supply,” said HALEU Programme Manager Jeff Hasty for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the site’s managing and operating contractor.

Date: Wednesday, 05 April 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newshaleu-production-planned-for-savannah-river-site-as-clean-up-continues-10731144

X-Energy UK Holdings and Cavendish Nuclear are developing proposals for small modular reactors (SMRs) in the UK and have "identified Hartlepool as a preferred location" - welcoming EDF's announcement that the existing nuclear power plant will operate for an extra two years, to 2026. 

Date: Saturday, 11 March 2023
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/X-Energy-and-Cavendish-Nuclear-s-SMR-plan-for-Hart

Construction will slip and zero carbon goal become harder TerraPower said its Natrium reactor could be delayed at least two years because of a lack of advanced fuel sources outside Russia. Courtesyy TerraPower. If the US does not work out how to prepare uranium fuel for advanced reactors, the startup of first-of-a-kind plants on which spent billions of dollars have been spent will be delayed, the Breakthrough Institute research centre said.

Construction of subsequent plants will slip into the future, and the goal of a zero-carbon energy system by mid-century, already hard, will become harder.

Breakthrough said fuel was needed for reactors designed to work well with wind and solar on the grid, to replace coal plants, and to do other kinds of work besides making electricity – all in the quest for a zero-carbon economy.

“Construction of subsequent plants will slip into the future, and the goal of a zero-carbon energy system by mid-century, already hard, will become harder,” Breakthrough said.

Some advanced reactors need high assay low-enriched uranium, or Haleu, fuel. Without it “we are likely to have the first few advanced reactors waiting to start up, with no fuel for them in sight,” Breakthrough said.

Date: Friday, 20 January 2023
Original article: nucnet.org/news/us-research-centre-warns-of-delays-over-lack-of-haleu-1-4-2023

The two countries plan to work together on the development and construction of next-generation advanced reactors including small modular reactors, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura and US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said after meeting in Washington DC.

Date: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Japan,-USA-to-cooperate-on-advanced-reactor-develo

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has accepted an application from X-Energy Reactor Company subsidiary, TRISO-X, for a fuel fabrication facility which will use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). Anticipating the decision, TRISO-X, in October, broke ground and began construction of the facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The TRISO-X Fuel Fabrication Facility (TF3) is expected to create more than 400 jobs and attract investment of approximately $300 million. TF3 is set to be commissioned and operational by 2025.

Date: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-nrc-accepts-triso-xs-application-for-fuel-fabrication-facility-10451681

Kazakhstan has relaunched its IVG.1M research reactor at the Energy Ministry’s National Nuclear Centre (NNC) after it was adapted to use low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. Like many other research reactors, IVG.1M originally used highly enriched uranium (HEU), which is now considered a proliferation risk. The IVG.1M reactor is a research, high-temperature, gas, modernized thermal neutron reactor with a light-water moderator and coolant and with a beryllium neutron reflector.

Date: Wednesday, 11 May 2022
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newskazakhstan-restarts-research-reactor-with-leu-fuel-9687320

The AA Bochvar Research Institute of Inorganic Materials (VNIINM), a subsidiary of Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer TVEL, has successfully developed the technology and manufactured experimental fuel pellets from uranium disilicide for light water reactors. The move is part of a programme for the development of so-called accident-tolerant fuel (ATF).

Date: Friday, 04 February 2022
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/TVEL-develops-accident-tolerant-fuel-pellets

A design concept for a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) reactor to power future astronaut missions to Mars has exceeded key performance parameters and optimised the reactor for manufacturability, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has announced. The reactor's features include a compact core thanks to the use of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel.

Date: Friday, 18 September 2020
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/GA-delivers-HALEU-fuelled-reactor-concept-for-Mars

New fuel type is seen as crucial for next generation reactors US energy secretary Dan Brouillette . Courtesy DOE. The US Department of Energy is working to end US reliance on Russia for nuclear fuel and plans to begin processing US uranium into high-grade fuel at a DOE facility in Portsmouth, Ohio, as early as next year, energy secretary Dan Brouillette told members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy.

The “high-assay low-enriched uranium”, or Haleu fuel, is particularly important for new and smaller commercial reactors that the DOE considers critical to grid stability as renewables replace aging fossil fuel power plants, Mr Brouillette said.

He told lawmakers the DOE has moved centrifuges from its Oak Ridge laboratories to a mothballed uranium processing plant built in the 1950s at Portsmouth, Ohio, and expects to begin processing to produce Haleu next year.

In addition, the DOE is working on legislation authorising the creation of a uranium reserve.

Date: Friday, 24 July 2020
Original article: nucnet.org/news/energy-secretary-says-haleu-processing-could-begin-next-year-7-4-2020