- DOE Issues RFP for $500M in HALEU Contracts
- UK / HALEU Nuclear Fuel Gets a £300m Boost
- UK / HALEU Facility Set for Urenco’s Capenhurst Site
- Stock Prices of Uranium Miners Rise on RFP for HALEU
- UK Lays Out Revised Nuclear Roadmap for 24 GW
DOE Issues RFP for $500M in HALEU Contracts
The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a request for proposals worth $500M for production of high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) nuclear fuel.The Inflation Reduction Act will provide up to $500 million for HALEU enrichment contracts selected through this RFP and a separate one, released in November, for services to process the uranium enriched through this RFP into metal, oxide, and other forms to be used as fuel for advanced reactors.
HALEU is needed for advanced reactors that are not based on light water reactor designs. DOE has spent hundreds of millions of dollars through its advanced reactor demonstration program to commercialize two advanced designs. One from TerraPower which is a 345 MW sodium cooled advanced design. The other is from X-Energy which is developing an 80 MW high temperature gas cooled reactor.
DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy plans to award one or more contracts to produce HALEU from domestic uranium enrichment capabilities. Once enriched, the HALEU material will be stored on site until there is a need to ship it to a facility for deconversion. See DOE HALEU Availability Program for details.
Under the HALEU enrichment contracts, which have a maximum duration of 10 years, the government assures each contractor a minimum order value of $2 million, to be fulfilled over the term of the contract. Proposals are due by 5 p.m. MST on March 8. This RFP incorporated industry feedback received on a draft version issued in June 2023.
DOE is supporting several activities to expand the HALEU supply chain for advanced commercial reactors, including recycling spent nuclear fuel from government-owned research reactors.
In November, DOE reached a key milestone under its HALEU Demonstration project when a company produced the nation’s first 20 kilograms of HALEU, providing a first of its kind production in the United States in more than 70 years.
DOE is also working with other countries to promote public and private sector investments that will expand global uranium enrichment and conversion capacity over the next three years and establish a resilient uranium supply market that is free from Russian influence.
Together, the United States, Canada, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom have announced collective plans to mobilize $4.2 billion in government-led spending to develop safe and secure nuclear energy supply chains.
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UK / HALEU Nuclear Fuel Gets a £300m Boost
- Government Says Putin Will Not Hold Country To Ransom
- First HALEU production plant could be operational in early 2030s
(NucNet) The UK has announced plans to spend £300m (€348M, $380M) on a new program to produce advanced nuclear fuel for use in the next generation of reactors. The investment is part of an multi-national effort to to dislodge Russia as the main international supplier of enriched uranium. The first production plant is scheduled to be operational by the early 2030s.
An additional £10m will be provided to develop the skills and sites to produce other advanced nuclear fuels in the UK, helping to secure long term domestic nuclear fuel supply and support international allies.
The UK said its new investment would help support domestic production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) – a type of fuel needed for many next-generation advanced reactors, but currently only produced on a commercial scale by Russia.
The £300m investment is part of plans to help deliver up to 24 GW of clean, reliable nuclear power by 2050 – a quarter of the UK’s electricity needs and an increase from around 5.8 GW today.
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UK / HALEU Facility Set for Urenco’s Capenhurst Site
(NucNet) The UK government has not yet named the location of the planned production facility for its high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) program, but an executive at a UK nuclear development company told NucNet that the facility would be at Urenco’s Capenhurst enrichment plant near the city of Liverpool in northwest England.
HALEU is uranium enriched to more than 5%, but less than 20%, and is expected to be used by most advanced reactor developers.
The UK’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero launched a £300m (€349m) program on January 8th to develop HALEU in the country, which will limit the UK’s dependence on Russian uranium supply and enrichment services. Urenco says on its website that the Capenhurst facility has three uranium enrichment plants.
The executive noted that during a tour of the facility in 2023, Urenco representatives had discussed with him potential HALEU production at Capenhurst, which has the required capacity of 4,500 metric toness a year separative work units.
Separative work unit, abbreviated as SWU, is the standard measure of the effort required to separate isotopes of uranium (U235 and U238) during an enrichment process in nuclear facilities. 1 SWU is equivalent to 1 kg of separative work. As a larger unit, 1 tonne of separative work units or tSWU equals 1,000 kg of separative work.
The Springfields nuclear fuel fabrication facility, the country’s only fuel production complex and owned by Westinghouse, is also in northwest England, outside the city of Preston. The site previously hosted a plant to convert yellowcake into a gas form (UF6) needed for the enrichment process, but that facility stopped operating, but was not dismantled.
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Stock Prices of Uranium Miners Rise on RFP for HALEU
The Bloomberg wire service reported that North American uranium miners including Global Atomic Corp. (GLO.TO) and NexGen Energy Ltd. (NXE:NYSE) rose after the announcement by DOE of an RFP for procurement of $500M worth of HALEU nuclear fuel.
In Australia firms the stock prices of Paladin Energy Ltd. (PDN.AX) and Deep Yellow Ltd. (JMI.F) increased sharply on prospects for higher prices. Uranium investment firm Yellow Cake Plc (YCA.L) climbed to a record as trading opened in London.
Futures tracking spot prices for a raw form of uranium known as yellowcake hit a 15-year high. They more than doubled last year as Western efforts to boost energy security and cut emissions sparked a global nuclear renaissance. Source: Cameco Uranium Spot Prices
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UK Lays Out Revised Nuclear Roadmap
(NucNet contributed to this report) The UK government laid out with considerable public relations fanfare a revised roadmap for building new nuclear power plants between the current era and 2050. It set a target of 24 GW which is a 5 GW increase over an older roadmap devised by previous plans that called for 19 GW.
The government promoted the idea that this would be the biggest expansion of nuclear power in decades. Approval will be given for one or two new reactors every five years from 2030 to 2044, and further backing would be given to another large-scale nuclear station in addition to Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C. Both sites will host twin EDF EPRs which are among the largest commercial PWRs in the world. The new station would be similar in size to these existing projects, with plans for several more plants to follow before 2050.
The 24 GW target equates to about 11 new reactors the size of the 1,600 MW Hinkley Point C EPRs coming online by the middle of the century. The government has several sites to choose from that are failed efforts in the past two decades to develop nuclear plants under the 19 GW plan. These sites include Wylfa and Olbury, Moorside, and Bradwell as well as Angelesety in north Wales.
Former PM Boris Johnson booted Chinese State Owned Nuclear Enterprises out of the UK nuclear market on “security grounds” tanking prospects for the Bradwell site. His predecessors failed to come to terms for the Wylfa and Oldbury sites (both twin 1350 MW ABWRs), and the Moorside site ( three Westinghouse AP1000s).
The government will face significant challenges to meet these ambitious goals. They include having a robust supply chain composed mostly of UK firms, training thousands of people in skilled trades to build the plants to nuclear quality standards, and controlling costs and schedules for all projects. Runaway costs and delays like those that have afflicted the Hinkley Point C project in the UK and the Flamanville EPR in Francet could result in a loss of public support for the reactors.
Options for Small Modular Reactors
New capacity would also come from small modular reactors, most likely on industrial sites around the UK. These are factory-made plants that are smaller and cheaper than facilities such as Hinkley Point C.
While the technology has yet to be deployed, the government has been running an official process to support deployment of the first SMR in Britain. Rolls-Royce SMR, a division of the engineering firm Rolls-Royce, is among those in the running along with five other firms all of them offering light water designs.
Advanced modular reactors will play an important role in the UK’s nuclear revival as, like small modular reactors, they are smaller, can be made in factories, and could transform how power stations are built by making construction faster and less expensive. Many designs have the potential for a range of applications beyond low-carbon electricity generation, including production of hydrogen or industrial heat.
Investment Decisions Needed ‘Every Five Years’
The government said it plans to speed up action on new nuclear projects by introducing a time frame requiring an investment decision every five years from 2030 to 2044. To help achieve this, the government wants to secure investment decisions to deliver 3-7 GW of new nuclear power every five years from 2030-2044 and develop new regulations to speed up the deployment of new plants.
Government and Industry Support for the Massive New Build
Energy secretary Claire Coutinho said a nuclear revival was essential to cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost energy security, especially after the crisis in gas supplies that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Strengthening our energy security means that Britain will never again be held to ransom over energy by tyrants like Vladimir Putin. British nuclear, as one of the most reliable, low-carbon sources of energy around, will provide that security.”
She was backed by prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who said: “Nuclear is the perfect antidote to the energy challenges facing Britain – it’s green, cheaper in the long term and will ensure the UK’s energy security for the long term.
Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the London-based Nuclear Industry Association, said the commitment to explore a further large-scale project beyond Sizewell C in parallel with the deployment of SMRs is very welcome.
“We will need both large and small nuclear at scale and at pace for our energy security and net zero future,” he said. “Decisions on 3-7 GW in each five-year period provide the greater clarity and predictability, which in turn enables supply chain investment and more UK content in the future fleet.”
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