BWXT briefs lawmakers on TRISO fuel, Project Pele and Wyoming supply‑chain potential

Joshua Parker, senior director for Advanced Nuclear Fuels at BWXT, told the committee the company has a 165‑year history in boilers and reactors and has made naval reactors for more than seven decades. He described BWXT’s existing TRISO fuel capability at Lynchburg, Virginia, and its involvement in Project Pele, a Department of Defense microreactor program deploying a high‑temperature gas reactor prototype. "Project Pele... that reactor just began construction this past two weeks ago," Parker said.

Parker explained TRISO fuel architecture — a uranium kernel plated with a porous carbon buffer and multiple outer layers including silicon carbide — and showed a compact prototype used for testing. "These are surrogate particles that will then be pressed into compacts," he said. Parker said BWXT produces naval cores and maintains NRC‑category licensed facilities and that expanding TRISO fuel production would require matching upstream enrichment supplies and downstream reactor customers.

BWXT detailed supplier outreach and early supplier successes in Wyoming: the company hosted supply‑chain days, performed on‑site supplier assessments and identified Wyoming firms that could supply graphite machining and other components. Parker said Wyoming firms already contributed test components to university reactor tests. "We actually procured parts inside of Wyoming," he said, citing HiViz and other vendors that manufactured graphite blocks for reactor testing at MIT.

BWXT said it and the Wyoming Energy Authority have an ongoing cooperation agreement to evaluate the state as a possible location for expanded TRISO fuel production and that further decisions depend on aggregated reactor demand, enrichment feedstock availability and regulatory approvals. Parker said BWXT seeks to aggregate demand — multiple modules or repeat orders — to lower production costs and achieve viable manufacturing economics.