Supporting 200 GW of new nuclear by 2050 would require fuel supply chain capacity to increase by 200-300% with uranium mining and milling increased by 50,000 metric tonnes (MT) a year of triuranium octoxide (U3O8), a US Department of Energy report* says.

The report lays bare the urgent need for new source of uranium to support the projected demand of advanced nuclear reactors. This supply would potentially need to be split between developing a domestic supply and working with other Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries such as Australia and Canada to ensure a sufficient uranium supply.

According to the report, the US would need an additional 5,000 MT per year of additional fuel fabrication capacity.

To fabricate this much fuel, the US would need to mill an additional 50,000 MT per year of U3O8, to produce 65,000 MT per year of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) through conversion, and have an additional 30 million separative work units (SWU) per year of enrichment capacity – six times higher than current capacity.