The World Is Racing to Develop New Nuclear Fuels
Equinor Pulls Out of Japan’s Offshore Wind Market Felicity Bradstock is a writer and journalist based in Mexico City.
She writes for energy websites and covers several other industries, as well as writing… In the age of the nuclear renaissance, several countries are strategising to significantly increase their nuclear energy capacity over the coming decades, as part of efforts to diversify their energy mix and boost long-term energy security.
However, securing fuel to power operations has been complicated, particularly following the introduction of sanctions on Russian energy products.
Now, alternative uranium fuels offer promise for the nuclear energy industry.
Nuclear fission, used in all existing nuclear power plants, is theprocessin which an atom's nucleus splits into two or more smaller nuclei and other particles.
Fission can release large amounts of heat and radiation.
Today’s nuclear power plants use this heat to boil water and drive steam turbines to make electricity.
Operators typically useuraniumfuel, enriched to up to 5 percent uranium-235 (U-235), to power nuclear reactors.
Scientists worldwide are alsostriving to achieve and commercialise nuclear fusion, which could produce more abundant clean power.
Operators will increasingly need to use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), which is enriched to more than 5 percent and less than 20 percent, to power the advanced nuclear reactors and small modular reactors (SMRs) being developed today.
However, HALEU is not widely commercially available at present, with only Russia and China currently producing the fuel at scale.
Following the United States ban on Russian uranium imports in 2024, the U.S.
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