The US Department of Energy and National Reactor Innovation Center will back Utah-headquartered Nusano to accelerate commercial development of a direct metallisation high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, nuclear fuel production line to meet expected growth in small modular reactor demand.
Nusano, which moved its HQ from California to Utah last year, describes itself as a physics company pioneering advances in radioisotope and nuclear fuel production.
Sponsorship of its HALEU development effort is part of the US federal Nuclear Energy Launch Pad Program, aimed at accelerating commercialisation of innovative nuclear technologies.
“Through Launch Pad, Nusano will gain access to DOE authorisation processes, national laboratory expertise, infrastructure, technical resources and project support intended to accelerate advanced nuclear technologies from development to deployment,” Nusano said.
The 10-year-old company’s HALEU production line uses metallic uranium feedstock instead of fluorinated uranium gas. It is developing compact production units designed to generate 5.9 tonnes of HALEU per year, with the first unit scheduled to be operational in 2031.
“HALEU contains more uranium-235 than the fuel used in most reactors today while remaining below the threshold for highly enriched uranium,” Nusano says.
“This makes HALEU useful for many small modular reactors, which can use it to produce more power from less fuel, run longer between refuelling and fit into smaller, more flexible designs.
“Nusano’s direct-metal feedstock pathway moves metallurgy earlier in the enrichment process and eliminates hazardous fluorine chemistry. The uranium feedstock is converted to metal before enrichment then Nusano applies proprietary separation techniques to separate atoms by mass. For HALEU the platform takes in uranium metal, enriches and separates uranium-235 from uranium-238, and outputs HALEU in metallic product form.
“The metallic part refers not to the enrichment level but to the physical and chemical fuel form: uranium processed as a metal or metal alloy rather than as uranium oxide, ceramic TRISO particles or molten salt fuel.”
The US DoE estimates domestic demand for HALEU could reach 50 metric tonne units a year by 2035. Less than 1mtu a year was currently produced in the US.
