Framatome licensed to produce LEU+ fuel at its Richland plant

Framatome announced this week that its nuclear fuel manufacturing facility in Richland, Wash., has received Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a license amendment supporting fabrication of nuclear fuel with enrichment levels above 5 percent uranium-235, with manufacturing scheduled to begin in 2027.

According to Framatome, the approval supports the company's Advanced Fuel Management program, which focuses on bringing nuclear fuel technologies to the existing U.S. nuclear fleet, including uranium oxide pellets with higher enrichment levels and advanced codes and methodologies that support higher fuel burnups.

Background: Framatome has been making modifications to its Richland facility since 2022 to manufacture high-burnup fuel using low-enriched uranium plus (LEU+), which is uranium enriched to a level between 5 and 10 percent U-235.

An operational readiness review is scheduled with the NRC in early 2027 to confirm that the amended license requirements have been implemented at the facility, the company said. Approval of the review will allow receipt of the LEU+ material for processing at the site for the first reload manufacturing campaign.

Framatome recently received NRC approval of its topical report "High Burnup for Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs)," which supports increased fuel burnup limits for the company's GAIA and HTP fuel designs. Additionally, Framatome said the NRC approved the application of its suite of PWR Advanced Codes and Methods to operating conditions with U-235 enrichments exceeding 5 percent. The NRC also approved a license amendment allowing Framatome to transport fresh PWR and boiling water reactor fuel assemblies within the U.S. with U-235 enrichments up to 8 percent U-235.

Framatome's work in LEU+ fuel has been supported by the Department of Energy's Accident Tolerant Fuel program.

Quote: "This approval is the next step in bringing fuel solutions with higher enrichment levels to the nuclear energy market," said Lionel Gaiffe, Framatome's senior executive vice president. "We are getting closer to changing the landscape of the industry by going beyond traditional enrichment levels and bringing economic and value-added solutions to our customers."

U.K. LEU+: Earlier this week, Urenco UK announced that it has produced LEU+ at its Capenhurst enrichment facility in England.

This was the first trial run of this new service, the company said, which was conducted following positive feedback from a regulatory readiness review and subsequent permission from the U.K.'s Office for Nuclear Regulation.

The trial, which ran from April 27 to May 1, achieved samples at 7 percent U-235, demonstrating Capenhurst's capability to produce LEU+, according to Urenco.

Urenco UK said it plans to make LEU+ commercially available from the United Kingdom in the near future, which will support existing capability from Urenco USA's National Enrichment Facility in New Mexico. Urenco USA received NRC approval to produce LEU+ in 2025.

LEU+ could be transported to fabricators as soon as early 2027 to complete the next stage of the fuel cycle, the company said.