TerraPower has selected four companies to contract for supply services and equipment for their Natrium reactor demonstration project being developed in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
      The Natrium demonstration plant project features a three hundred and forty-five megawatt sodium-cooled fast reactor with an energy storage system based on molten sodium-salt. This storage technology can temporarily boost the system’s output to five hundred megawatts when needed. This enables the plant to follow daily electrical load changes. It also integrates seamlessly with fluctuating renewable resources.
      In November of 2021, Kemmerer was chosen as the preferred site for the demonstration project. The location is near the Naughton coal power plant. The old coal plant is due to be retired in 2025. It was selected after an extensive evaluation process and meetings with community members and leaders.
      TerraPower is a company that is largely funded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. It has now chosen four suppliers to support the Natrium demonstration project.
      Western Services Corporation (WSC) has been contracted to provide the software platform and engineering services for the Natrium engineering simulator. TerraPower is developing the simulator to simulate normal operation and plant protective functions. WCS will provide services critical to its development.
     James Fisher Technologies (JFT) will design and construct an injection casting furnace system that will be implemented in TerraPower’s Everett laboratory. It will demonstrate the basic functionality of the injection casting process.
     BWXT Canada Limited will design the intermediate heat exchanger for the Natrium demonstration project. This is a critical component which transfers heat from the primary sodium in the primary heat transport system to the intermediate sodium in the intermediate heat transport system.
     Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Service LLC (CWFCS) will develop the reactor protection system (RPS) for the demonstration project. The RPS will perform important safety functions in accordance with regulatory requirements. TerraPower said that this contract follows a phased approach including provisions of a prototype system, as well as, planning and engineering support. This will take place prior to the detailed design, manufacture, testing and delivery of the RPS.
     Tara Neider is the Senior Vice President and Project Director for the Natrium Reactor Demonstration Project. She said, “Throughout the process of bringing the Natrium Reactor and Energy Storage System to market, we have found that working with a diverse supply chain strengthens our ability to deliver a cutting-edge technology. The commercialization of advanced reactors relies on the support of experts from various industries, and we look forward to collaborating with these suppliers to build the Natrium reactor.”
     TerraPower noted the process of awarding contracts for the project was ongoing. It will continue to provide updates as additional contracts are awarded.
     Last December, TerraPower stated that it expected operation of the Natrium demonstration reactor to be delayed by at least two years. The reason for the delay is that there will not be sufficient commercial capacity to manufacture high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel in time to mee the proposed 2028 in-service date.
     However, last month TerraPower and Centrus Energy Corporation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to significantly expand their collaboration aimed at establishing commercial scale, U.S. production capabilities for HALEU to supply TerraPower’s novel Natrium reactor and energy storage system.

     U.S. uranium mining company Uranium Energy Corporation (UEC) recently announced its plan to accelerate the steps required for a resumption of operations. This will enable a faster restart at the Christensen Ranch in-situ leaching (ISL) project in Wyoming.
     UEC acquired the Uranium One Americans (U1A) project from Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom in December of 2021. U1A’s assets included production-ready the Christensen Ranch ISL project and associated orebodies. When combined with the Irigaray central processing plant (CPP), this group of assets forms the Willow Creek uranium mine. They have been under care and maintenance since 2018.
     UEC said, “The repatriation of the assets to US ownership has been a transformative acquisition for UEC, positioning the company as the largest, fully permitted, low-cost ISL project resource base of any US-based producer.” Since the UEC acquisition of the U1A assets, “key production infrastructure, including its wellfields and the satellite ion exchange plant, have been maintained, and now upgraded and refurbished to facilitate a fast restart. Uranium recovered from Christensen Ranch will be processed at UEC’s Irigaray CPP.”
     The Irigarauy CPP is the anchor of the UEC’s Wyoming hub-and-spoke project. The plant was originally constructed by Westinghouse and was later expanded by U1A in 2010. The expansion added two resin elution circuits and additional precipitation capacity. The Irigaray CPP is one of the biggest uranium CPPs in the U.S. It is licensed for two and a half million pounds of uranium production per year. There are pending plans to increase the licensed capacity to four million pounds per year.
     The first project that will feed the Irigaray CPO will be the Christensen Ranch project. UEC has been working at Christensen Ranch since the beginning of this year. They are moving out of care and maintenance and advancing towards resuming production. UEC has already conducted a series of operational tests in the mine units of the project.
     UEC also announced the installation of a new wellfield at the Christensen Ranch. The drilling and well installation program for one hundred and eighty recovery and injection wells is planned to start in August of 2023. The company noted that “Although not required for initial startup, these new wellfield modules will be installed and available for ramp up to meet production requirements.”
     Amir Adnani is the UEC President and CEO of UEC. He said, “With demand increasing for uranium supply from stable geopolitical jurisdictions and US national security objectives, we foresee an increasingly urgent need for domestic uranium supply. The fundamental drivers of supply and demand, including pending legislation to ban Russian uranium imports to the United States, are translating into rising uranium prices that have accelerated UEC’s production readiness program. In that regard, we have been working towards restarting production to fulfill the need for domestic uranium.”
     In April of 2022, UEC disclosed mineral resources totaling sixty-nine million pounds of U308 in the first technical filing for its Wyoming hub-and-spoke uranium ISL project. The elements of the project consist of the Irigaray, Christensen Ranch, Moore Ranch, Reno Creek, Ludeman, Allemand-Ross, Barge and the Jab/West Jab project areas. The total measured and indicated resources across all the assets total almost sixty-two million pounds of U308. Total inferred resources are over seven million pounds of U308.

Part 3 of 3 Parts (Please read Parts 1 and 2)
     This legislative salvo into advanced reactors will be kicked off by a House Energy and Commerce legislative hearing this month focused solely on nuclear energy according to a committee spokesperson. Sean Kelly is a House E&C spokesperson. She said that the hearing will “discuss additional solutions that help advance American leadership in nuclear energy and technology, which is a top priority for Chairs Rodgers and Duncan.”
     Duncan has long sought to move his bill, the  “Modernize Nuclear Reactor Environmental Reviews Act,” H.R. 1559, through Congress. He wants to speed up the timeline of environmental reviews of reactors much more dramatically than the ADVANCE Act by expanding the use of categorical exclusions and generic environmental impact statements.
     Representative Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) has legislation that would establish a DOE training program for foreign nuclear energy exports. It also presses other agencies to restrict nuclear fuel associated with China. According to Duncan, all of those bills could comprise a comprehensive legislative package in the House. Duncan said, “I’d really like to have a whole nuclear week on the floor.”
     Despite efforts to pass bills on their own or attach provisions to novel vehicles, the classic approach of attaching legislation to the National Defense Authorization Act may end up as the most likely way that nuclear bills get passed in this Congress. The massive package that authorizes funds for the military has historically taken in nuclear energy riders in previous versions. House lawmakers are already signaling the energy source may have a spot in the upcoming defense bill.
     Authors of the House version of the bill promoted the benefits of clean, reliable energy for military operations. Some call the development of microreactors “critical to the fight”. The bill is on the floor of the House this week.
     John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) also said that he would be pushing to include legislation like the Nuclear Fuel Security Act, S. 452. This bill would provide hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for domestic uranium production. Rodgers also indicated openness to having her uranium ban bill attached to the military authorization bill. Barrasso said, “We’re gonna look everywhere to attach it to, but the NDAA is an option.”
    A Senate EEPW aide who was granted anonymity to speak candidly said that the committee is looking at Schumer’s China bill as an option. The NDAA is still the best and most likely option for the ADVANCE Act to get passed. However, lawmakers will need to jump into action. Separate version of the NDAA have already been passed in the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. The Senate aide said it was still not clear how Armed Services Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) felt about nuclear provisions in the bill.
     The 2024 NDAA may be the last chance for significant nuclear legislation to be passed in the near future. Sponsors of legislation like the ADVANCE Act are hoping to find a better vehicle and avoid having to pass it as a stand alone bill. Capito said, “I don’t anticipate [the ‘ADVANCE Act’] to be a singular bill, but if we keep going at this pace, it just might be.”

Part 2 of 3 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     The Accelerating Deployment of Versatile Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act bill’s sponsors have attracted bipartisan support. They know that it will likely need to hitch a ride on a larger legislative vehicle moving through Congress. The “ADVANCE Act” authors may have a more unconventional target for their bill. Their target is a still-nebulous China competition bill from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Carper said that “Sen. Schumer’s working on putting together another, well, I think he’s called it a China bill. That might be a possibility for the bill as well.” Schumer has only described his work on the China bill in broad terms, but no text is available yet. Schumer said that he intends to develop a package aimed at competing with China ahead of the August recess.
     The ADVANCE Act does contain several provisions to boost U.S. nuclear exports to better compete with state-owned nuclear enterprises found in countries like China and Russia.
     Supporters of the ADVANCE Act are trying to generate as much support as possible to give the bill a better chance. Capito said, “We’re socializing it with some more members to see if we need to incorporate some different ideas in there.” Sponsors are still attempting to gain the support of progressives who initially voted against the bill in committee because of proliferation concerns over the bill’s nuclear export provisions. Senate EEPW staff are still negotiating potential changes to address those concerns with Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
     Both of these Senators voted against the bill in committee. Markey said, “There are nonproliferation concerns that are essential to ensuring that there’s a gold standard of safety in nuclear exports. Otherwise, plutonium and uranium could end up in the hands of the wrong people.”
     In the House, Republican nuclear boosters are working on a separate track. They are coalescing around an effort from House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) to ban Russian uranium from being used in U.S. reactors.
     The H.R. 1042 bill is the latest and most prominent effort to reduce Russian nuclear dependence by slowly phasing out and eventually banning Russian uranium imports by 2028. About twenty percent of the enriched uranium in the U.S. is imported from Russia. Sponsors of the bill are taking a more conventional approach in getting the bill passed. They hope to get it to the House floor as a stand alone bill. They are also moving on other efforts to propagate small modular reactors (SMRs) and overhaul regulatory processes.
     Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) is the Chair of the House E&C Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security. He has taken the lead in forwarding a broader nuclear agenda in his Blueprint for Nuclear Innovation and Competitiveness. It lays out policy goals like revamping licensing pathways for the next generation and expedited environmental reviews of nuclear reactors. It also has ambitions to reduce emergency planning zones surrounding those advanced reactors.
     Duncan said that House Republicans would prioritize their own licensing reforms and other nuclear work such as the uranium ban bill before looking at Senate bills. However, he has shown a willingness to work with the Senate in a bipartisan manner. The ADVANCE Act does archive some of his regulatory reform goals. Duncan said, “Right now we’re trying to get domestic sourcing of enriched uranium, meaning [Rodgers’] bill, to the floor. Then, we’ll look at what we can do to propagate SMRs and advanced technology.”
Please read Part 3 next