Startup and commissioning to advance in coming months
US nuclear fuel company Standard Nuclear said construction of two new advanced fuel production facilities in Tennessee and Idaho is substantially complete, advancing towards commissioning, regulatory approval and the start of production.
The SN-TN and SN-ID facilities are two new identical facilities capable of collectively adding up to five tonnes of uranium (MTU) per year of additional Triso (TRi-structural ISOtropic) production capacity once fully scaled, with the facilities initially expected to provide up to 1 MTU of additional annual capacity each.
SN-TN is at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory site in Tennessee and SN-ID is at Idaho Falls, Idaho, site of the Idaho National Laboratory.
The company expects startup, commissioning and licensing to advance for both facilities over the summer.
In parallel, Standard Nuclear has received approval of preliminary documented safety analyses for both of the facilities from the US Department of Energy.
Standard Nuclear already operates its existing SN-0 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which is producing Triso with a capacity of up to 0.5 MTU annually.
The company said expanding domestic nuclear capacity depends on a fleet of inherently safe advanced reactors, many of which rely on Triso-based fuels.
Triso consists of a uranium-based fuel kernel surrounded by three distinct layers of ceramic and carbon materials, which form an individual containment system for each particle.
This tri-structural design is said to provide exceptional resistance to corrosion, high temperatures, and irradiation, making it impossible to melt under extreme conditions and containing radioactive fission products effectively.
