DOE delivers HALEU feedstock for advanced reactor fuel

Standard Nuclear - which describes itself as a reactor-agnostic producer of TRISO (tri-structural isotropic fuel particles) - says it is the first company to both receive authorisation from the Department of Energy (DOE) and also physically receive HALEU for production of advanced TRISO fuel.

The HALEU feedstock has been allotted by the DOE to California-based nuclear microreactor developer Radiant. It will be processed by Standard Nuclear into TRISO fuel for Radiant’s advanced reactor demonstration scheduled for 2026: the volume of material is "sufficient to produce a full core load of advanced nuclear fuel for the first reactor startup by Radiant", Standard Nuclear said.

The project operates under an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) executed between Standard Nuclear and the DOE's Idaho Operations Office, which was announced in December. This provides authorisation for the company to receive and process the material into advanced nuclear fuel.

"Receipt of this shipment of HALEU feedstock is a transformative moment, firmly entrenching Standard Nuclear’s position at the forefront of the advanced nuclear fuel supply chain," Standard Nuclear CEO Kurt Terrani said. "We are proud to be the first company authorised by the DOE to take this step toward full-scale TRISO fuel production, which is essential for bringing US-made, reliable, and advanced nuclear power to the nation."

HALEU - uranium enriched to contain between 5% and 20% uranium-235 - will be used by many advanced reactors. The USA is working to build up its supply chain for the material: it has recently allocated USD2.7 billion in funding to strengthen the supply chain for both low-enriched uranium and HALEU. The HALEU Availability Program was established as long ago as 2020 to secure a domestic supply of HALEU for civilian domestic research, development, demonstration, and commercial use, to enable nuclear developers to request HALEU material from DOE sources, including material from the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The DOE launched its Fuel Line Pilot Program in July 2025, alongside the Reactor Pilot Program. These two initiatives were launched in response to executive orders issued by President Donald Trump to expedite the testing of advanced nuclear reactor designs under DOE authority outside of the national laboratories, with the goal of three reactors reaching criticality by 4 July this year.

Radiant, developer of the 1 MWe Kaleidos TRISO-fuelled high-temperature gas-cooled portable microreactor, was selected by the DOE in August as one of the first selections under the Reactor Pilot Program. It plans to test its first reactor in 2026, with initial customer deployments beginning in 2028. In mid-December, the California-headquartered company announced it had raised more than USD300 million in a new round of funding to support the scaling of its commercialisation efforts. It is planning to break ground early this year for a factory to make its transportable nuclear generators at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. According to Radiant, the R-50 factory will be the first in the world to mass-produce portable nuclear reactors.