HALEU: DOE to Supply Five Companies Developing Advanced Nuclear Reactors

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced its commitment to supply five American nuclear companies with the first allocations of HALEU (High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium), a critical fuel for advanced reactor concepts. The first deliveries are expected by fall 2025. The DOE also plans to continue distributing HALEU to additional companies in the future.

The HALEU Availability Program in the U.S. was launched in 2020. Five years later, the DOE is preparing to fulfill its national supply commitments. On April 9, 2025, it announced that it will meet the short-term needs of five U.S. companies: Kairos Power, TerraPower, TRISO-X (a subsidiary of X-energy), Westinghouse, and Radiant Industries.

This uranium, enriched between 10% and 20% (compared to 3–5% for traditional reactors), is intended for future advanced reactors [1], which these five companies will operate. As the U.S. currently lacks domestic facilities to manufacture this specific type of fuel, the DOE previously selected Framatome and Orano, along with four other companies, to handle the “deconversion” phase of the fuel cycle and signed a ten-year contract with them.

This nuclear material allocation benefits recipients of the ARDP Pathway 1 grant (Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program), companies planning demonstrations on the DOME testbed (Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments), and several risk-reduction awardees under the ARDP. “The allocation of HALEU will help U.S. nuclear developers deploy their advanced reactors using materials from secure supply chains, marking a major milestone in President Trump’s program to revitalize the American nuclear sector,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. The DOE also plans to extend these allocations to other companies in the future.

Diverse Reactor Technologies

In August 2024, Kairos Power announced the construction of its Hermes demonstration reactor—an innovative high-temperature reactor using molten salt as a coolant, which will not produce electricity. The HALEU it receives from the DOE will be used to produce TRISO (Tri-Structural Isotropic) fuel pellets, the fuel type used in this 35 MWth reactor.

X-energy is developing the Xe-100 reactor, which also uses TRISO fuel. This type of fuel can withstand much higher temperatures than conventional fuel, offering a very high level of safety. “Thanks to the HALEU availability program and other initiatives, we hope that the commercial sector will help bridge the HALEU supply gap to support the deployment and scalability of the advanced reactor fleet. We are grateful to the government for its continued support in commercializing these next-generation technologies and building a reliable and secure energy future,” said Joel Duling, President of TRISO-X.

For its part, TerraPower anticipated its needs early on and had already signed an agreement with Framatome to develop a pilot line for HALEU metal fuel production in the U.S. The diversification of suppliers will help secure the fuel supply for its Natrium demonstration reactor—a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor scheduled to come online in 2030. ■