Framatome, TerraPower to Develop HALEU Deconversion Pilot Line
(Updated—June 1, 2024): Framatome and TerraPower will team to design and develop a pilot line for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) metallization, a crucial deconversion process, at Framatome’s nuclear fuel manufacturing facility in Richland, Washington.
The pilot line, which will convert uranium oxide into HALEU metal, is scheduled to be ready for testing in early 2025, Framatome told POWER. While the pilot line will only use natural or depleted uranium, “information gained from its operation will be used to establish the functioning design for the future HALEU metal production facility at Framatome,” the company said.
Framatome noted it has submitted a proposal in response to the U.S. Department of Energy HALEU Deconversion Services request for proposal (RFP) to participate in development of a production facility for uranium metal. “HALEU metal production would begin approximately 3 to 4 years after the contract award,” it said.
The effort ultimately seeks to initiate a “long-term collaboration to supply metal feedstock and help TerraPower build a domestic HALEU supply chain,” the companies said in a joint statement on May 29.
Establishing a Key HALEU Deconversion Process
Deconversion is a significant step in the HALEU fuel cycle. After enrichment, HALEU uranium hexafluoride (UF6, 19.75% enriched, such as Centrus Energy is producing) must be “deconverted” to a uranium form (to include oxides, metal and alloys, and nitrides and carbides) suitable for fuel fabrication. (POWER explains the process in detail in a sidebar here.)
As Framatome explained, the metallization of HALEU “is a crucial part of the deconversion process that allows uranium to transform into a metal that is then used to fabricate fuel for advanced reactors.” Already under construction, the new HALEU pilot line will begin the metallization process “via existing processes in the Richland facility,” the company told POWER on May 31.
“The uranium feedstock will be converted to uranium metal using a two-step process that Framatome is validating and enhancing for the HALEU program,” Framatome said. “The ingot is separated from the byproducts of the reaction, cleaned, and used for nuclear fuel production. The uranium metal obtained will be of purity and quality for the industrial commercial applications,” it said.
While deconversion is traditionally performed at fuel fabrication facilities, deconversion of HALEU enriched to 10% or higher must be conducted in a physical security Category II facility. However, Framatome noted that the metallization of uranium produced in the pilot line will not require changes to its Richland facility’s security or regulatory license.
“For future HALEU production, a new facility will be constructed that will satisfy the necessary security requirements for possession of HALEU possession and will require regulatory evaluation and approval,” it noted.
A Pilot Geared Toward Potential Customers
The successful completion and operation of Framatome’s HALEU metallization pilot line could mark important progress for the advanced nuclear industry. Most advanced reactors set to be deployed in the next decade—including 9 out of 10 funded by the government’s multi-billion-dollar Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), will require HALEU.
“While some first-of-a-kind (FOAK) advanced reactors will obtain limited quantities of HALEU from special government programs (specifically from limited HALEU stockpiles made available by the U.S. national laboratories), this pathway is not available for all advanced reactor technologies and is not commercially viable in the long term. It is not clear where other advanced reactors will obtain their initial fuel cores, unless construction of new domestic HALEU production capacity begins very soon,” the Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA) noted in a detailed December 2023 report.
“HALEU supply for second-of-a-kind and subsequent reactors is even more uncertain. This uncertainty, if left unaddressed, has the potential to leave future advanced reactors without fuel, creating a ripple effect that can not only inhibit near-term deployments but also undermine the prospects for more widespread long-term adoption of advanced nuclear technologies,” it added.
The DOE is currently pursuing several pathways to secure a domestic HALEU supply. Under the HALEU Availability Program (HAP), established by the Energy Act of 2020, the agency has set out to acquire HALEU through purchase agreements with domestic industry partners as part of a bid to spur demand for additional HALEU production and private investment in the domestic nuclear fuel supply infrastructure.
In March, the DOE noted it closed requests for proposals (RFPs) for the purchase of HALEU enrichment and deconversion services. The measures will leverage $700 million in funding allocated by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to support HAP activities. Later in April, the agency said it planned to award contracts “later this summer.”
According to Framatome, another important attribute that the pilot seeks to satisfy will be to build “the trust and confidence our customers count on,” said Ala Alzaben, senior vice president for North America Fuel at Framatome.
TerraPower already supports operational centers in Washington state at its Bellevue-based headquarters and laboratory and at its Everett laboratory location, the company noted. “TerraPower is at the forefront of the next generation of advanced reactors and by utilizing our expertise and flexible manufacturing infrastructure, we can ensure new clean nuclear projects are not waiting on the supply chain of nuclear fuels,” Alzaben said.
Urgency for Adequate Fuel
While TerraPower has been supportive of a strong domestic fuel supply chain, it is fielding urgency for adequate fuel as development continues at Kemmerer Unit 1, a Natrium reactor power plant, which it is building under the DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).
The project is taking shape in Lincoln County, Wyoming, about 3 miles from PacifiCorp’s three-unit 604-MW coal and gas–fired Naughton Power Plant. When completed, the demonstration project will both showcase the pioneering technology and provide power generation capacity in the PacifiCorp service area.
Progress on plant development has been ongoing, and the company has so far announced two rounds of supplier selections. TerraPower, notably, submitted its construction permit application (CPA) to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in late March, and the NRC accepted the CPA on May 21. The NRC is now working on establishing a review schedule for the CPA.
While the ARDP originally required the demonstration project to begin operations in 2028, TerraPower is now eyeing a 2030 start date, citing a lack of HALEU availability. In July 2023, the company announced a memorandum of understanding with Centrus Energy to “significantly expand their collaboration” to ensure the demonstration reactor will have access to HALEU to meet the 2030 schedule.
Natrium is an 840 MWth pool-type sodium fast reactor (SFR) that “contains a compact and simple safety envelope and a molten salt energy storage system, which enables the plant to vary its supply of energy to the grid up to 500 MWe net [for 5.5+ hours], while maintaining constant reactor power,” TerraPower says.
“The reactor operates near atmospheric pressure, circulating sodium through its core with pumps. Heat is transferred from the primary loop within the Primary Heat Transport System (PHT) to an intermediate sodium piping loop within the Intermediate Heat Transport System (IHT) via intermediate heat exchangers located in the reactor pool,” it explains.
Kemmerer 1 will comprise a nuclear island, which contains the reactor and its supporting systems, and an energy island, which will contain the thermal energy storage tanks, steam generator, feedwater system, condenser, turbine, and supporting systems. The islands are designed to function independently.
The plant’s IHT will transport reactor heat from its intermediate heat exchanger to its nuclear island salt system (via sodium-salt heat exchangers), which will then transport the heat to the energy island’s hot salt storage tank for thermal energy storage. The heat stored in the hot salt tank can then be used to generate steam for use in commercial steam generators. “The design includes reliable inherent and passive safety features, including near-atmospheric operating pressures, always-on passive air cooling, and inherent reactivity feedback,” TerraPower notes.
As Mark Werner, TerraPower vice president of plant delivery, told the NRC on May 15, compared to a traditional sodium fast reactor (which generates steam through a sodium-to-water steam generator), Natrium removes the sodium water reaction entirely. “We do have an air cooling system that removes heat directly from the outside of the reactor, and this allows us, effectively, indefinite passive emergency decay heat removal in the case of a severe abnormal event. Since our reactor is a pool-style sodium reactor, we do not operate at a high coolant pressure, we’re a very low coolant pressure, near atmospheric pressure,” he said.
A Crucial Market Signal for the Fuel Manufacturing Sector
Natrium’s fuel design will use a metallic uranium fuel alloyed with 10 weight percent zirconium and cladding comprising ferritic-martensitic steel (HT9). In October 2022, TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy announced they would develop a fuel fabrication facility at Global Nuclear Fuel–Americas’ (GNF-A’s) nuclear fuel fabrication plant in Wilmington, North Carolina, that will produce reliable fuel for Natrium plants.
The Natrium fuel facility will be jointly funded by TerraPower and the DOE through the ARDP. It represents an investment of more than $200 million into advanced fuel fabrication, GNF LWR Fuel Product Director Rich Augi told the NRC in December 2023.
TerraPower notes that while it is not a uranium company, it recognizes a need for a “robust domestic HALEU supply chain.” That supply chain includes “uranium mining, enrichment of uranium into the high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU), the deconversion of that HALEU into a metal, and the fabrication of the HALEU into fuel rods to power the Natrium reactor,” it says.
“While there are multiple uranium mines in America, the United States does not currently have commercial-scale HALEU enrichment capability, deconversion facilities, or fuel fabrication facilities for Natrium. To date, TerraPower has made multiple investments to advance domestic supply chain capabilities.” Several of its commitments, however, were made before Russia invaded Ukraine, it says.
On Wednesday, TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque said the investment into Framatome’s pilot line marks another critical step in bringing advanced reactors like Natrium to market.
“A strong domestic fuel supply chain is crucial for the wide-scale deployment of advanced nuclear energy solutions; an energy source we know is needed to meet clean energy targets and provide reliable, baseload energy,” he said. “It is also one more way that TerraPower is delivering on its promise to do our part to support the fuel manufacturing sector.”
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
Updated (June 1): Adds substantial new details about the pilot line’s schedule, process, and purpose.