The Department of Energy is getting the ball rolling on an environmental review of its big drive to drum up a domestic industry for energy-dense uranium fuel by hosting public webcasts about the effort this month.
The agency announced the opening of a public comment period on a draft environmental impact statement for its High Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) Availability Program in a Federal Register notice set to publish on Monday.
The comment period was to open Monday and conclude July 20, according to the Federal Register notice. In between those dates, the agency will host virtual scoping meetings about the draft environmental review: a legally mandated part of DOE’s drive to jumpstart a domestic HALEU industry for commercial users.
The scoping meetings were scheduled for June 21, at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time, June 21 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time and June 21 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time, according to the notice. Those interested in attending and speaking during the virtual scoping meetings can register on DOE’s website to attend the webcasts.
DOE could use input it gets during the meetings to determine exactly which environmental impacts of its planned HALEU Availability Program it will review, and how.
Congress created the HALEU Availability Program in 2020 as part of the Energy Act of 2020. The energy-dense uranium, which can contain as much as 19.75% of the uranium-235 isotope by mass, could power experimental nuclear-reactor designs DOE is helping to develop.
Part of DOE’s plan to develop a domestic HALEU supply involves a project that grew out of a sole-source award to Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md. The agency last year awarded the company a contract that, with options, could be worth up to $1 billion and calls for production of 900 kilograms of HALEU a year beginning in 2024.
But that effort, which is also a technology incubator for an all-domestic enrichment technology that could theoretically be used one day to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and warships, is narrower in scope than what DOE plans under the HALEU availability program.
In Monday’s Federal Register notice, the agency said it was looking for up to 145 metric tons of HALEU, under the availability program. One metric ton is equal to 1,000 kilograms, which is greater than the U.S. ton of 2,000 pounds.
The HALEU Availability Program also leaves the door open for the U.S.-based operating units of foreign-owned companies to get in on the U.S. drive to produce HALEU, which presently comes mostly from Russia.
