Standard Nuclear, a reactor-agnostic producer of TRISO nuclear fuel, today announced that it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for advanced negotiations under the Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program. The program aims to demonstrate disposition through use by making designated surplus plutonium material available to industry participants and enabling the conversion of those materials into fuel for advanced nuclear reactors.
Plutonium is an energy-dense feedstock well-suited for safe, productive consumption as advanced nuclear fuel. As the only participant in the Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program without a proprietary reactor program, Standard Nuclear expects to fabricate plutonium-based TRISO fuel as an independent supplier to any advanced reactor developer seeking to utilize this material.
“At Standard Nuclear, we’ve long viewed surplus plutonium and transuranic streams as a valuable resource rather than waste — feedstock that can be safely and securely transformed into advanced nuclear fuels that power the next generation of reactors. We are pleased to announce our selection to the Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program and look forward to working with the DOE to make that vision a reality,” said Thomas Hendrix, Founder and Executive Chairman of Standard Nuclear.
As outlined in Standard Nuclear’s previously published white paper, Standard Nuclear’s TRISO-based approach carries a specific technical advantage in the context of plutonium disposition. TRISO’s layered silicon carbide architecture encapsulates the fuel at the particle level, meaning that once plutonium-bearing TRISO is irradiated in a reactor — burning the transuranic content and generating electricity — the discharged fuel is already in a form that is corrosion-resistant, leach-resistant, and essentially repository-ready.
The irradiation of plutonium-bearing TRISO was demonstrated in the United States at the commercial Peach Bottom reactor in the early 1970s, and modern analysis has validated the “Deep Burn” strategy — encapsulating transuranic elements in TRISO and irradiating them in High-Temperature Gas Reactors or existing Light Water Reactors — as a practical pathway to both energy generation and significant reduction of long-term radiotoxicity.
About Standard Nuclear
Standard Nuclear’s mission is to reliably deliver the essential building blocks of nuclear power at scale — enabling cost-effective, safe, and secure energy for the world. Supported by leading U.S. defense technology and critical infrastructure investment firms, Standard Nuclear is focused on the large-scale production of advanced nuclear fuel and radioisotope power systems. It is the nation’s only independent manufacturer of TRISO fuel — a robust, high-performance fuel essential to advanced nuclear reactors for terrestrial, national security, and space applications. Standard Nuclear offers a reactor-agnostic supply of advanced fuels to the next-generation nuclear industry and delivers dependable radioisotope power solutions to the space and defense sectors. Through these efforts, it is helping to eliminate U.S. reliance on geopolitical adversaries for these strategically vital technologies. For more information, visit: https://www.standardnuclear.com/
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