OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) — Near signs that warn of radioactive risk at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a half-dozen workers from the nuclear power company X-energy are making what appear to be gray billiard balls. Inside, they’re packed with thousands of tiny black spheres that each contain a speck of uranium enriched beyond what today’s power plants use.
The United States is chasing a new age of nuclear power that banks on domestic production of reactor fuel like X-energy is making, and though the work at Oak Ridge is unfolding across just 3,000 square feet, X-energy and others are already revving up for big production.
President Donald Trump set a goal of quadrupling domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years, signing executive orders in May to speed up development. A new wave of advanced nuclear reactors could be operational around 2030.
But just like cars won’t run without gas, those plants won’t run without fuel. To expand nuclear energy long-term, the nation must maximize its nuclear fuel production, according to Trump.
In Oak Ridge, X-energy has broken ground on a massive, nearly $2 billion campus for a new fuel fabrication facility, the first in the United States in over half a century. The nuclear fuel company Standard Nuclear, also in Oak Ridge, aims to produce metric tons of fuel for advanced reactors. A supplier named Orano is likewise looking to build a multibillion-dollar uranium enrichment facility nearby.
“This is a unique time,” said Tyler Gerczak, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s principal investigator for the cooperative with X-energy’s subsidiary TRISO-X. “The momentum is incredible.”
Making the ‘most robust nuclear fuel’
The Associated Press toured the lab where X-energy is making small amounts of fuel for testing. Anyone beyond a magenta-and-yellow chain that warns of radioactivity must wear gowns, two layers of gloves and radiation monitors. When they leave, they’re tested for radioactivity.
X-energy, a Maryland-based company, uses uranium to make so-called TRISO fuel — inside what’s known as “pebbles.” Those are the billiard balls. The Energy Department says it’s the most robust nuclear fuel on Earth because the particles cannot melt in a reactor.