Plutonium-contaminated liquid storage at a radioactive wastewater treatment facility at the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado. (Photo credit: National Park Service)
The Energy Department on Tuesday said it is advancing negotiations with five nuclear power companies that plan to convert surplus, Cold War-era plutonium stockpiles into fuel for startups building small modular reactors.
The five companies are Oklo, Exodys Energy, SHINE Technologies, Standard Nuclear, and Flibe Energy, according to a spokesperson for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. If finalized, the initiative, formally known as the Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program, could supply up to 20 metric tons of plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads to SMR developers.
The program “is anticipated to help companies unlock the next level of private funding to broaden domestic nuclear fuel supplies, spur innovation on American recycling technologies, and unlock private sector funding to fuel the nation’s nuclear renaissance,” the spokesperson said.
It underscores the Trump administration’s push to speed up the construction of nuclear power plants in the U.S. and shore up a domestic supply of nuclear fuels, including both uranium and plutonium. Last May, President Donald Trump ordered DOE and other agencies to develop plans to expand U.S. uranium production — including the high-assay, low-enriched uranium that many SMR companies need — as well as make surplus plutonium available to industry “in a form that can be utilized for the fabrication of fuel for advanced nuclear technologies.”
