Nuclear technology innovator BWX Technologies Inc. agreed to work with the Wyoming Energy Authority to evaluate requirements on where to build a potential nuclear fuel factory in Wyoming.
Energy insiders within Wyoming’s nascent nuclear industry have been discussing for months whether the state has a shot at getting involved in a nuclear fuel fabrication factory, a new business line in the United States that could provide a potential source of fuel to compete alongside coal.
Given the rush of uranium companies that are digging up the much sought-after ore in the Red Desert area in central Wyoming and the energy-rich Powder River Basin, talk also has emerged over turning the state into a one-stop shop in the nuclear space.
This would range from mining uranium to turning the yellowcake byproduct into fuel and ultimately assembling parts of novel nuclear reactors.
Wyoming has made it clear that it has skin in the nuclear game.
On Thursday, nuclear technology innovator BWX Technologies Inc. agreed to work with the Wyoming Energy Authority (WEA) to evaluate requirements on where to build a potential nuclear fuel factory in the state.
The fuel would be used for powering some of the Lynchburg, Va.,-based company’s micro nuclear reactors that it is developing, as well as the reactors of competitors.
“If you think about our approach to nuclear, it has to do with more than just mining the uranium and getting these new [microreactors built] up and running for power,” WEA Executive Director Rob Creager said. “It’s about getting this whole value chain in the state of Wyoming. We feel comfortable that our best bet, and our first bet, should be in the fabricating space, which is where we’ve been working with BWXT for months now.”
Creager told Cowboy State Daily that he estimates “hundreds of millions of dollars” could be needed to build the kind of nuclear fuel fabrication factory needed to power commercial micro nuclear reactors being designed by BWX Technologies and others.
He said that the factory could provide long-term economic benefits to Wyoming.
“A lot of companies are talking about using this fuel. It won’t just be used in Wyoming,” Creager said. “They’ll be used in other reactors as well.”
Game-Changer For Wyoming
This is potentially a game-changer for Wyoming, especially since many observers have thought this fuel factory concept was the missing link in the state’s push to grab a share of the emerging market for building reactors.
The factory, if one is ever to be built in Wyoming, would support anticipated future demand for advanced reactor deployment.
The study to evaluate whether Wyoming could support a nuclear fuel production factory is the focal point of the analysis that BWX Technologies will perform for the WEA.
If such a facility comes to Wyoming, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission must license the operation before construction could begin.
This is the process that the NRC currently follows as part of the construction of TerraPower LLC’s $4 billion nuclear power plant in Kemmerer in the southwestern part of the state.
Bellevue, Wash.,-based TerraPower, which is backed by billionaire Bill Gates’ money as well as funding from the Department of Energy (DOE), is still in need of a permit to build its regulated nuclear reactor in Kemmerer.
This is the case even though dignitaries and business leaders gathered in the dusty landscape outside of Kemmerer for a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony to start construction of the non-nuclear end of the plant.
The entire project is not a done deal.
The same NRC licensing requirements would need to be followed by BWX Technologies if it moves forward with a nuclear fuel production factory in Wyoming.
The roughly 18-month study agreement that BWX Technologies signed with the WEA will evaluate potential factory locations, product specifications, facility design and engineering, estimated capital expenditures and operating costs, staffing and worker skill requirements, supply chain necessities, licensing and other requirements.
“This is the first study that we’ve been involved with in analyzing different scenarios internally over the last couple of years on what a final facility would look like,” said Joe Miller, president of the BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC unit, who is responsible for overseeing the WEA study.
First Partnership
“This is the first time that we’ve had a partnership with a state,” Miller told Cowboy State Daily.
BWX Technologies is evaluating the manufacture of a new form of nuclear fuel that will be more efficient for newly designed reactors on the planning table – estimated to cost roughly $100 million each, Miller said.
Miller said that its reactors are safer than the commercial lightwater reactors with their bell-shaped cooling towers seen across the United States. The BWX Technologies-designed reactors are so tiny that they could be hauled by an 18-wheeled semi-trailer truck.
BWX Technologies also is participating with the WEA to understand the state’s “supply chain” of nuclear technology businesses.
The microreactor that BWX Technologies wants to build for the electrical grid is a commercial version of a military model that the Virginia contractor still needs to test out at the Idaho National Laboratory, one of the premier laboratories of the Department of Energy in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Miller said.
The new reactor, called the BWXT Advanced Nuclear Reactor, or BANR, is a modular, factory-fabricated system that is small and light enough to be transported by rail, ship or truck and generate enough electricity to light up about 9,000 homes.
In April, Gillette-based L&H Industrial partnered with BWX Technologies as part of a broader plan to build a one-stop shop in Wyoming for everything from manufacturing reactor vessells, specialized fences and electrical control panels to piping, wires and pouring concrete needed to build a containment building.
Nuclear Fuel
The fuel that BWX Technologies wants to make in a factory is called TRi-structural ISOtropic particle fuel, or TRISO for short.
In a nutshell, each TRISO particle is made up of a uranium, carbon and oxygen fuel kernel. The kernel is encapsulated by three layers of carbon- and ceramic-based materials that prevent the release of radioactive fission products, according to Paul Demkowicz, the technical director with the Idaho National Laboratory’s advanced gas reactor fuel development and qualification program.
TRISO fuel supports the emerging advanced reactor market, which is a field that BWX Technologies is familiar with.
DOE describes TRISO fuel as “the most robust nuclear fuel on Earth” given its ability to withstand high temperatures, resist corrosion and act as its own containment system.
“It’s probably not a cocktail party type answer,” Demkowicz told Cowboy State Daily of the fuel’s definition. “It’s a fuel that seeks to enhance the safety of plants.”
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
