Lab directors and industry partners say domestic HALEU supply is essential for advanced reactor demonstrations
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Summary
Directors told the subcommittee that high‑assay low‑enriched uranium (HALEU) is critical to many advanced reactor designs, outlined lab support to industry and described a DOE reprocessing path to produce domestic HALEU from legacy spent fuel.
WASHINGTON — Witnesses told the House Science subcommittee that HALEU (high‑assay low‑enriched uranium) is essential to many advanced reactor designs and that timely availability of the material is important to near‑term demonstrations under the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).
John Wagner, director of Idaho National Laboratory, said HALEU "is essential to reactor concepts. The supply of that material is incredibly important and the timely supply of that material is important." Wagner said Idaho National Laboratory has stocks of HALEU and is "working with the department to make available" material to private sector developers such as Kairos, Oklo and others. Tom Mason, director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, described Los Alamos' support to Kairos on TRISO fuel fabrication and said Los Alamos' capabilities "help solve the chicken and egg problem" of early fuel supply for test reactors.
Committee members noted that Congress had mandated that DOE provide developers at least 3 metric tons of HALEU by September 2024 under a nuclear fuel security provision. Witnesses said they lacked complete information on DOE's delivery status to date but indicated labs were working with DOE to make material available.
On EBR‑II material, Wagner told the committee that Idaho National Laboratory is reprocessing Experimental Breeder Reactor II spent fuel (previously high‑enriched uranium) and downblending recovered material into HALEU. He said the reprocessing program will result "in about 9.2 metric tons of HALEU by the end of this decade" and that the program is "about halfway through that material." Wagner said the lab will work with DOE to make that HALEU available to private companies.
Witnesses emphasized that fuel availability is only one of several steps needed to prove advanced reactors, along with fuel fabrication, licensing and demonstration test beds. Mason said Los Alamos is not planning to become a long‑term fuel fabricator but that working with TRISO fuel startups at the lab helps transition technology to commercial production. Kearns and others noted HALEU's critical role to vendors and the need for coordinated DOE and industry action to ensure timely supply.
Members asked the labs for follow‑up details on current HALEU inventories, timelines for making material available, and any additional barriers to private‑sector deployment.