Under the contract with ORNL, BWXT Nuclear Operations Group will fabricate and deliver uranium kernels, TRISO coated surrogate materials, and TRISO coated uranium kernels
BWXT Nuclear Operations secures contract to manufacture TRISO nuclear fuel. (Credit: Pixabay/Markus Distelrath)
Us-based power generation company, BWX Technologies has announced that its subsidiary BWXT Nuclear Operations Group has secured a TRISO nuclear fuel manufacturing contract.
The US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has awarded the contract to produce TRISO nuclear fuel to help the development of the Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR).
Under the contract, BWXT Nuclear Operations will fabricate and deliver uranium kernels, TRISO coated surrogate materials, and TRISO coated uranium kernels.
ORNL will use the materials in the development and prototyping of the reactor’s design and advanced manufacturing process.
BWXT NOG president Joel Duling said: “This contract award is strategically significant given our stated intention to find new markets for our advanced nuclear technologies.
“We are exceedingly pleased with this award and look forward to working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Department of Energy to demonstrate safe and clean nuclear power generation with a novel, low-cost, additively manufactured nuclear reactor.”
BWXT will also provide manufacturing support for the project
The TCR will demonstrate an approach to use new nuclear power systems.
BWXT said that the ORNL program will develop and operate the microreactor to explore solutions to the high costs and lengthy deployment timelines that threaten the future of nuclear energy.
In addition to TRISO fuel, BWXT will also provide manufacturing support for the project.
The company is also increasing its TRISO production capacity and is expected to provide the required quantities of fuel to power several reactor designs that will be manufactured using TCR principles in the future.
In October last year, BWXT has unveiled that it is restarting its current TRISO nuclear fuel production line at its Lynchburg, Virginia manufacturing facility.