DOE Launches Initiatives to Produce Uranium Fuel

• DOE-EM Restarts Uranium Recovery at SRS
• DOE Awards $19M for Spent Fuel R&D
• DOE Recycles Hanford Building for Uranium Fuel Production
• Six Things You Should Know About Nuclear Thermal Propulsion
• Natura, NGL Collaboration for Nuclear Powered Water Treatment in Texas
• NextEra Pitches Investors to Fund New Nuclear Capacity
• Newcleo Closes Funding Round Of $85 Million for Lead Cooled SMR
• Avalanche Energy Raises $29 Million for Fusion Work

DOE-EM Restarts Uranium Recovery at SRS

• Decision leverages Savannah River Site to produce fuel for advanced nuclear reactors.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) announced that it is restarting uranium recovery operations at the Savannah River Site (SRS) H Canyon facility in South Carolina. The action is a follow-on to the announcement by DOE-EM in April 2023 that highly enriched uranium stored at SRS would be downblended to produce HALEU.

The decision to restart uranium recovery will produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) needed for advanced reactors, create an opportunity to recover valuable isotopes with limited availability and demonstrate America’s capability to manage the complete nuclear fuel cycle.

In October 2024 officials at SRS told Neutron Bytes the lab will downblend HEU from stocks at the Savannah River Site which is at 20-50% U235 into high assay low enriched fuel (HALEU) at 5-19% U235 for use in advanced reactors including micro reactors.

The current inventory of used nuclear fuel at SRS contains enough highly enriched uranium to create as many as 19 metric tons of HALEU, enough to fuel several proposed small modular reactors. This is a significant increase over DOE’s original plan released in April 2023 of producing just two tonnes of HALEU from the HEU stocks.

Isotope Recovery

The process of uranium recovery also creates an opportunity to recover valuable isotopes currently available in limited domestic quantities, supporting critical needs in scientific research, medical applications and commercial uses.

The decision enables the facility to once again recover uranium and valuable isotopes through its chemical separations capabilities while continuing to safely process used nuclear fuel as part of the site’s cleanup mission.

H Canyon remains the only operating, production-scale, radiologically shielded chemical separations facility in the U.S., successfully operating and recovering uranium and other valuable materials from used nuclear fuel for more than 70 years.

Recovering uranium from used fuel before final disposal also reduces the number of high-level waste canisters needed, advancing EM’s cleanup mission by reducing long-term risks and cost.

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DOE Awards $19M for Spent Fuel R&D

• DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy awarded $19 million to five U.S. companies to research and develop recycling technologies for used nuclear fuel.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy awarded $19 million to five U.S. companies for research and development related to recycling technologies for used nuclear fuel.

“Used nuclear fuel is an incredible untapped resource in the United States,” said Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish.

Less than five percent of the potential energy in the nation’s nuclear fuel is extracted after five years of operation in a commercial reactor. Recycling used nuclear fuel could increase resource utilization by 95 percent, reduce waste by 90 percent, and decrease the amount of uranium needed to operate nuclear reactors.

Additional benefits to nuclear fuel recycling include the recovery and extraction of valuable radioisotopes for medical, industrial, and defense purposes. 

The following companies were selected to help solve the economic and technological challenges associated with nuclear fuel recycling technologies that also meet the nation’s strict nonproliferation standards and national security goals:

• Alpha Nur Inc. will research and validate a process that will recover highly enriched uranium (HEU) from used nuclear fuel produced by U.S. based research reactors and transform it to a usable high assay low enrichment uranium (HALEU) form for reuse in small modular reactor designs.

• Curio Solutions, LLC will develop a process designed to produce uranium hexafluoride gas from used fuel.

• Flibe Energy Inc. will study the use of electrochemical methods to process used nuclear fuel.

• Oklo Inc. will study heavy element deposition in molten salt to optimize a pyro-processing plant design.

• Shine Technologies, LLC will develop a process design that incorporates transport, storage, and disposal together with hydro-processing of used fuel.

Why this Funding is Important

This funding represents a strategic shift in how the U.S. views nuclear fuel—moving from a “waste problem” to a “resource opportunity.”

By investing in these five companies, the Department of Energy (DOE) is laying the groundwork for a Closed Fuel Cycle. Currently, the U.S. uses an “Open Cycle,” where fuel is used once and then stored. Transitioning to a closed cycle has three massive “Big Picture” impacts:

1. Resource Sustainability – Used nuclear fuel still contains about 95% of its original energy. Recycling allows the extraction of the remaining energy, drastically reducing the need for new uranium mining. It’s like finishing the whole meal instead of throwing away the plate after two bites.

2. Radical Waste Reduction – Recycling can reduce the volume of high-level waste by up to 90%. Furthermore, by removing specific long-lived isotopes, the “lifespan” of the remaining waste’s radioactivity can be shortened from hundreds of thousands of years to just a few centuries. This makes long-term storage much simpler and safer.

3. Energy Independence – Advanced reactors (like Small Modular Reactors or SMRs) often require HALEU (High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium). Currently, much of the world’s supply comes from foreign sources. Recycling “Highly Enriched Uranium” (HEU) from old research reactors into HALEU (as Alpha Nur is doing) helps secure a domestic supply chain.

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DOE Recycles Hanford Building for Uranium Fuel Production

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) announced 02/03/26 that it is partnering with American nuclear fuel company General Matter for the potential use of Hanford’s Fuels and Materials Examination Facility (FMEF).

DOE said in its press statement that the “partnership holds great promise for rebuilding the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain and unlocking nuclear energy critical for meeting growing demand for affordable, reliable baseload power needed to fuel the artificial intelligence (AI) race.”

DOE signed a lease with General Matter for the use FMEF for advanced nuclear fuel cycle technologies and materials. General Matter will evaluate the engineering feasibility and costs of  returning the facility to service, including site characterization, potential facility upgrades and engagement with community leaders and stakeholders.

FMEF is a 190,000-square-foot facility originally intended to support the Liquid Fast Breeder Reactor Program but was never used in any nuclear capacity. The facility has not supported a DOE mission since 1993 and has since remained in a dormant surveillance and maintenance status.

The effort is related to General Matter’s ongoing development of a new American uranium enrichment facility at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky to rebuild U.S. domestic enrichment capacity.

According to trade press reports, the firm claims to have a novel method for re-enriching uranium tails left over from uranium enrichment processes and held in storage at various sites by DOE in the form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6). The firm has not disclosed technical details of the enrichment process.

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Six Things You Should Know About Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

– NASA could one day use nuclear-powered rocket engines to send astronauts to Mars.

Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) systems aren’t new, but they could significantly reduce travel times and carry greater payloads than today’s top chemical rockets­ — expanding humanity’s opportunity to explore deep space. Here are six  things you should know about nuclear thermal propulsion.

1. NTP Systems Are Powered By Fission

NTP systems work by pumping a liquid propellant, most likely hydrogen, through a reactor core. Uranium atoms split apart inside the core and release heat through fission. This physical process heats up the propellant and converts it to a gas, which is expanded through a nozzle to produce thrust.

2. NTP Systems Are More Efficient Than Chemical Rockets

Engineers measure this performance as specific impulse, which is the amount of thrust you can get from a specific amount of propellant. The specific impulse of a chemical rocket that combusts liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen is 450 seconds, exactly half the propellant efficiency of the initial target for nuclear-powered rockets (900 seconds).

This is because lighter gases are easier to accelerate. When chemical rockets are burned, they produce water vapor, a much heavier byproduct than the hydrogen that is used in a NTP system. This leads to greater efficiency and allows the rocket to travel farther on less fuel.

3. NTP Systems Won’t Be Used At Launch

NTP systems would be launched into space by traditional chemical rockets and enter a planned orbit before they are safely turned on. NTP systems are not designed to produce the amount of thrust needed to leave the Earth’s surface.

4. NTP Systems Will Provide Greater Flexibility

NTP systems offer greater flexibility for deep space missions. They can reduce travel times to Mars by up to 25% and, more importantly, limit a flight crew’s exposure to cosmic radiation. They can also enable broader launch windows that are not dependent on orbital alignments and allow astronauts to abort missions and return to Earth if necessary.

5. NTP Systems Were Developed With Support From DOE

NTP is not new. It was studied by NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission (now the U.S. Department of Energy) during the 1960s as part of the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) program. During this time, Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists helped successfully build and test a number of nuclear rocket engines that today form the basis of current NTP designs.

Although the NERVA program ended in 1972, research continued to improve the basic design, materials, and fuels used for NTP systems.

NASA and DOE are now working with industry to develop updated nuclear thermal propulsion reactor designs. A design competition that led to development of multiple updated NTP reactor designs was held in 2021. Fabrication and initial testing of all major components included in three of the designs has been completed and work continues on integration and manufacturing of full engine systems. 

6. NTP Systems Are Focused On Using Low-Enriched Uranium

DOE is working with NASA to help test, develop and assess the feasibility of using new fuels that require less uranium enrichment for NTP systems. This fuel may be made using new advanced manufacturing techniques and can potentially help reduce security-related costs that come with using highly enriched fuel.

Idaho National Laboratory has helped NASA develop and test fuel composites at its Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility. The testing examined how high assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuels perform under the harsh temperature and radiation environments found in NTP reactors. The testing demonstrated that nuclear fuels under development by NASA and DOE are capable of withstanding ramps up to operational nuclear thermal propulsion temperatures without experiencing significant damage.

• Watch the animation above to learn about the benefits of nuclear thermal propulsion.

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Natura, NGL Collaboration for Nuclear Powered Water Treatment in Texas

(WNN) Under the terms of a new agreement, Natura and NGL subsidiary NGL Water Solutions Permian LLC will collaborate in seeking opportunities to combine Natura’s 100 MW molten salt reactor (MSR) with NGL’s produced water treatment and desalination expertise.

The combined system will have potential application for treating produced water from oil and gas operations on an industrial scale and will generate power and clean water for potential beneficial use in data centers, agriculture, and as a new water source for other industries.

The collaboration will also support NGL’s development of critical mineral extraction from its produced water. Produced water is water that is produced as a byproduct of oil and gas extraction, and is typically salty or brackish as well as containing hydrocarbon residues.

The collaboration will utilize NGL’s expected Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit to provide a flexible, economic solution for power generation and create a new water source for Texas.

NGL transports, treats, recycles and disposes of more than 3 million barrels per day of produced and flowback water generated from crude oil and natural gas production in the Permian Basin, the highest-producing oil field in the USA. This sedimentary basin is located in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

Natura said in its press statement, “The Permian Basin alone produces more than 20 million barrels of produced water daily. The ability to economically treat large volumes of produced water and enable its beneficial use, particularly for other industrial applications like data centers, will create a scalable alternative to address serious concerns associated with produced water disposal by injection, thereby sustaining the longevity of oil and gas development in the region.”

Natura Resources entered into a memorandum of understanding with Texas Tech University and Abilene Christian University in February 2025 to evaluate integrating Natura’s MSR technology with water desalination systems. The goal of this collaboration, which includes the Texas Produced Water Consortium (TxPWC) at Texas Tech, “is to provide a sustainable solution for water scarcity by purifying produced water from oil and gas operations, making it available for agricultural and other beneficial uses.”

In September 2024, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a license to Abilene Christian University for the construction of a molten salt research reactor on its campus in Abilene, TX, marking the first construction permit for a liquid-fueled advanced reactor and only the second for any advanced reactor issued by the NRC.

The university’s molten salt research reactor (MSRR) will be the first deployment of the Natura MSR-1, a 1 MWt, graphite-moderated, fluoride salt flowing fluid (fuel dissolved in the salt) research reactor. The MSRR will be used for on-campus nuclear research and training opportunities for faculty, staff and students in advanced nuclear technologies.

The reactor – which is expected to be deployed later this year – will significantly expand the university’s salt reactor research and development infrastructure, supporting US molten salt reactor design, development, deployment and market penetration. Natura expects to deploy its first 100-MW commercial-scale reactor – the MSR-100 – in 2029.

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NextEra Piteches Investors to Fund New Nuclear Capacity

(WNN) Speaking during a call with investors last week, NextEra CEO John Ketchum made a pitch to investors saying its NextEra Energy Resources subsidiary “remains focused on both optimizing and adding generating capacity to its nuclear fleet. We continue to advance the recommissioning of our Duane Arnold nuclear plant in IA, made possible by the 25-year power purchase agreement with Google we announced last year. Our nuclear fleet outside Florida is also ripe for advanced nuclear development.

“That’s why we are spending time closely evaluating the capabilities of various SMR OEMs. All told, we have 6GW  of SMR co-location opportunities at our nuclear sites and are working to develop new greenfield sites. Of course, any nuclear new build would have to include the right commercial terms and conditions with appropriate risk-sharing mechanisms that limit our ultimate exposure.”

NextEra Energy Resources, along with its affiliate company Florida Power & Light Company, operates seven nuclear units at four sites: Turkey Point and St Lucie in Florida; Seabrook in New Hampshire; and Point Beach in Wisconsin. Additionally, it plans to restart the Duane Arnold plant in Iowa, which ceased operations in 2020. The plant is scheduled to become operational at the beginning of 2029, pending regulatory approvals.

In October last year, NextEra Energy signed two agreements with Google, including a 25-year purchase power agreement (PPA) from the Duane Arnold plant, as well as agreeing to explore the development of new nuclear generation to be deployed in the USA.

NextEra announced in December an expansion of its collaboration with Google Cloud. Together, the companies plan to jointly develop multiple new gigawatt-scale data center campuses with accompanying generation and capacity. According to NextEra, the companies are already in the process of developing their first three campuses and are working to identify additional locations.

“Our breadth and depth allow us to have a multi-year, multi-gigawatt, multi-technology discussion with hyperscalers,” Ketchum said.

“These data centre hub opportunities, as we call them, represent a powerful channel to originate large generation projects with expansion opportunities where we can grow alongside our hyperscaler partner rather than building on a project-by-project basis. As we discussed in December, our data center hub strategy is all part of our new ’15 by 35′ origination channel and goal for Energy Resources to place in service 15 gigawatts of new generation for data centre hubs by 2035.”

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Newcleo Closes Funding Round Of $85 Million for Lead Cooled SMR

• Investment will be used partly for Precursor demonstration reactor in Italy

(NucNet) Newcleo, a European developer of advanced nuclear technologies, has announced the close of an $85m (€71m) financing round, bringing total funds raised in the past 12 months to over $125m.

The company said in a statement that the latest funding round brings total funds raised by the company since 2021 to over $755 million.

The round included support from existing shareholders such as venture capital firms Kairos and Indaco Ventures, asset manager Azimut Investments, the CERN pension fund and heavy industrial components manufacturer Walter Tosto.

New industrial investors included steel mill manufacturer Danieli, cement and concrete manufacturer Cementir and valves manufacturer Orion Valves, through its investment vehicle Ecoline.

Technology company NextChem, part of the Italy-based engineering group Mairie, has become a newcleo shareholder following the establishment of Next-N, a joint venture focused on the development of engineering services and technologies for the conventional island and balance of plant for the global mall modular reactor market.

Newcleo chief executive officer Stefano Buono said the financing will support the continued deployment of the company’s R&D infrastructure in Europe, including the construction of Precursor, its non-nuclear reactor. It will also accelerate newcleo’s expansion in the US.

The firm said in its press statement that, “the US represents the most dynamic market for advanced reactor technologies. The US is also home to key institutional, strategically aligned investors and market opportunities that we are eager to explore.”

Precursor is a non-nuclear reactor mockup rated at 10 MW thermal with power conversion of approximately 3 MW. Precursor is expected to be completed by the end of 2026 at the Italian National Agency for New Technologies’ Brasimone Research Center in Italy.

Newcleo has said its long-term strategy is to develop and deploy advanced reactor technologies and facilities for multi-recycling of spent nuclear fuel.

The company’s engineering team is working on the basic design of its LFR-AS-30 reactor. Newcleo’s lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) technology is designed to operate with recycled nuclear fuel, offering the promise of greater sustainability and reduced waste in nuclear energy production.

LFR plants are not yet operating, but are being developed as next-generation, or Generation IV, reactors. Lead has a very high boiling temperature of 1,749°C which means the problem of coolant boiling is for all practical purposes eliminated. This brings with it important safety advantages that also result in design simplification and improved economic performance.

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Avalanche Energy Raises $29 Million for Fusion Work

• Capital enables full private match for Washington State Green Jobs grant and supports buildout of Avalanche’s commercial FusionWERX test facility

Avalanche Energy, a fusion energy startup developing modular compact fusion machines, announced $29 million in new funding led by RA Capital Management. New investors include 8090 Industries, Overlay Capital, and others, with full participation from existing investors Congruent Ventures, Founders Fund, Lowercarbon Capital, and Toyota Ventures, demonstrating increased confidence in Avalanche’s technical progress and commercial roadmap.

The funding reflects significant recent advances in the performance of Avalanche’s compact fusion technology and provides the private matching funds for Avalanche’s $10M grant issued in July 2025 by the Washington State Department of Commerce Green Jobs Grant Program, as well as additional capital to fund the company’s continued commercial growth.

The funding will primarily be deployed to scale FusionWERX, Avalanche’s commercial-scale fusion test facility located in Richland, WA. Funds will also be used to build out Avalanche’s team, order long-lead equipment (including superconducting magnets), and advance the development of the company’s next-generation compact fusion devices that will have use-cases across a broad range of applications including material irradiation, mobile power generation, and power for the electric grid.

Avalanche launched its FusionWERX facility in April 2025 as the first commercial-scale fusion test facility designed to serve the broader fusion industry. The site will operate under a broad-scope radioactive materials license with advanced tritium handling capabilities when fully licensed and operational, expected in 2027.

FusionWERX will provide critical testing infrastructure for fusion technologies, materials development, and workforce training while serving as the site for Avalanche’s own Q>1 deuterium-tritium test program aimed at demonstrating the world’s first net-energy compact fusion system.

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