Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios
The advanced nuclear industry has yet another challenge on the Hill: ensuring uranium supply.
Why it matters: The U.S. doesn't have much domestic supply of the high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, needed for many advanced reactor designs. That's one of the biggest hurdles to commercializing the technology at scale.
Driving the news: Sen. Joe Manchin told Axios on Thursday he's worried that the Nuclear Fuel Security Act might be the latest casualty in defense bill negotiations.
- "It's not done until it's done, but it doesn't look good," Manchin said.
- The bipartisan bill, tacked onto the Senate's version of the NDAA back in July, would establish a program at the Energy Department to boost domestic production of HALEU and low-enriched uranium.
- Add it to the list of energy-related provisions in procedural trouble as lawmakers negotiate a final NDAA (we've already told you about the ADVANCE Act and the CHIPS permitting rider).
- Manchin and Sen. John Barrasso used a Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing this morning to implore colleagues to keep the bill in the NDAA, or pass it as part of a spending package.
Zoom in: Edward Stones, vice president of energy and climate at Dow, told the committee fuel supply is the biggest risk to his company's small modular reactor project with X-energy.
- Dow wants to put a reactor at an industrial site on the Gulf Coast with money from DOE.
- "We've said we want to start this up about 2030.… If we go past a place where our board can be comfortable that fuel is going to be available, we'll need to move back to what we do today, which is gas technology," Stones said.
Of note: The Biden administration included $2.2 billion for HALEU enrichment in its supplemental funding request, on top of the $700 million Congress doled out for HALEU in the IRA.
- The Senate may take up a foreign aid supplemental next week — but it's unclear if Congress will move the nuclear money this year, amid disputes about spending, the border and Ukraine.
