The Department of Energy this week solicited bids for what could be a decade-long contract to purchase new low-enriched uranium fuel from U.S. and allied sources.
The Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Enrichment Acquisition will be a 10-year, $3.4 billion, indefinitely-quantity, indefinite-delivery contract with multiple awardees, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy wrote in the solicitation posted online Thursday. The agency planned to contract for uranium mining, conversion, enrichment and storage.
Bids are due Aug. 26, according to the solicitation.
Though both acquisitions are tied to the $2.7 billion in funding Congress approved in fiscal year 2024 to boost U.S. uranium production for commercial nuclear power plants, the LEU acquisition rolled out this week is separate from the High Assay Low Enriched Uranium procurement that began earlier this year.
Both the LEU and the HALEU acquisitions aim to give U.S. companies the bulk of DOE’s business, but both programs allow “allied and partner nations” to participate.
For uranium acquired under the LEU deal, DOE prefers material that comes from existing U.S. mining facilities and new U.S. conversion facilities. However, the uranium must be enriched by new U.S. facilities, according to the solicitation. DOE is willing to store the uranium in either new or existing domestic facilities, with no preference for one over the other.
In May, President Joe Biden (D) signed a bill intended to ban imports of Russian uranium by 2028. Some in Congress wanted to act sooner, but the administration held out until lawmakers provided billions in subsidies for the domestic uranium industry, which atrophied in the face of decades of competition from cheaper Russian uranium.
