BWX Technologies said Monday it had received a $3.6 million contract for engineering to decommission and refurbish parts of its Lynchburg, Va., facility to eventually produce high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel for a National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation program.
The uranium-molybdenum alloy fuel the company will produce will be used in U.S. research reactors that currently burn high-enriched uranium, according to a BWXT press release.
The effort is part of the research reactor conversion program within the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.
Fuel production could begin by 2024, BWXT said, “[a]ssuming additional future awards.”
The company is a longtime provider of fuel for research and test reactors. It currently is the sole supplier in North America of fuel-bearing parts for reactors used by national laboratories and academic institutions, the release says.
