Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios
The $110.5 billion national security supplemental that Democrats unveiled Tuesday includes money for nuclear fuel supply.
Why it matters: The U.S. has very little domestic production of enriched uranium. It's a huge potential stumbling block for the nascent advanced nuclear industry.
Driving the news: The package would make $2.7 billion available for low-enriched uranium, used in conventional nuclear reactors, and high-assay low-enriched uranium, used in many advanced reactor designs.
- The money would go toward at least two competitive awards from the Energy Department for acquisition and distribution of LEU and HALEU.
- But Senate Republicans are expected to sink a procedural vote on the package Wednesday afternoon, amid intense divides over border policy.
What's next: That leaves the money in a precarious place. But it does have some bipartisan support.
- Sens. Joe Manchin and Jim Risch both expressed support for including nuclear fuel funds in the supplemental during a hearing last week.
Of note: This is a priority for the industry because Russia is currently a dominant supplier of HALEU.
- Both the House and Senate have been trying to move the Nuclear Fuel Security Act (see above). That bill would establish programs at DOE to firm up domestic supply of HALEU and LEU.
