By Jonathan Mattise and Jennifer McDermott
OAU RIDDE, Tenn. (AP) — Signs warning of radioactive risks at OAU RIDDE National Laboratory have a half-dozen workers at nuclear power company X-Energy create what looks like a gray billiard ball. Inside, they are packed with thousands of small black spheres containing spots of uranium enriched beyond what power plants use today.
The US is chasing a new era of nuclear power generation, banking domestically for atomic production like X-Energy, with work at Oak Ridge deploying at just 3,000 square feet, while X-Energy and others are already spinning for mass production.
President Donald Trump set a goal of quadruple domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years, and signed an executive order in May to speed up development. A new wave of advanced nuclear reactors could operate around 2030.
But just as cars don’t run without gas, those plants don’t run without fuel. According to Trump, the country must maximize nuclear fuel production in order to expand nuclear energy in the long term.
At Oak Ridge, X-Energy has broken the ground on its nearly $2 billion campus due to its new fuel production facility. Also, Standard Nuclear Power, a nuclear fuel company located in Oak Ridge, aims to produce metric tons of fuel for advanced reactors. A supplier called Orano is similarly considering building a multi-billion dollar uranium enrichment facility nearby.
“This is a unique time,” said Tyler Gelzak, principal investigator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a cooperative with Triso-X, a subsidiary of X-Energy. “The momentum is incredible.”
Creating the “most robust nuclear fuel”
The Associated Press toured a lab where X-Energy produces small amounts of fuel for testing. Beyond the magenta and yellow chains warning of radiation, you must wear a gown, two-layer gloves and a radiation monitor. When they leave, they test for radioactivity.
X-Energy, a Maryland-based company, uses uranium to create what is called Triso Fuel. They are billiard balls. The energy sector says it is the most robust nuclear fuel on the planet, as the particles cannot be dissolved in the reactor.
In the lab, the first step is to make a uranium cocktail that resembles dark yellow lemonade.
Dan Brown, vice president of fuel development at Triso X, said uranium powder is added to nitric acid in the form of octoxide triple wires and added to nitric acid. Next, carbon and organic solutions are added. Two glass containers are installed. One wears a heated jacket, which looks almost like a small sweater, helping the uranium dissolve in the acid solution. While a second carbon source is added, the second cools the acid solution and the mix is almost black, he said.
At another station with long, clear tubes, the cocktail solidifies into small black spheres with consistency like jellyben. These black balls look like a very small BBS, moving the machine under 1,800 degrees Celsius with poppy seeds sizes about 1,800 degrees Celsius, and getting a protective carbon coating like candy dip.
X-Energy uses graphite and other agglomerated materials to bond 18,000 kernels to larger spheres. This will coat with a final layer of graphite to seal the final pebbles. Ultimately, it’s strong enough to withstand the weight of an SUV.
The pebbles ultimately abandon the energy of the high-temperature-cooled reactor X energy, with approximately 220,000 pebbles per reactor, like the gumballs in a gumball machine. Once they leave the bottom, if energy remains, the pebbles will return to the top for another pass. Each can be used about six times. X-Energy also plans to manufacture fuel products for other advanced reactor designs.
National Laboratory lends high-tech equipment for X-Energy expertise, research and analysis, and evaluates the sample as well as some universities. Other samples are archived. The Idaho National Laboratory received a batch of advanced test reactors, Brown said.
Construction continues on Friday, June 27, 2025 at the Triso-X Energy Fuel Fabrication Facility facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Construction continues on Friday, June 27, 2025 at the Triso-X Energy Fuel Fabrication Facility facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Taylor Duffin of Triso-X, a subsidiary of X-Energy, will look at Triso Fuel samples through a microscope in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on Friday, June 27, 2025 (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The uranium kernel, wrapped in three alternating layers of pyrolytic carbon and silicon carbide used to manufacture Triso fuel, will be visible on Friday, June 27, 2025 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (AP Photo/George Walker IV).
Triso fuel cells will be measured at Oak Ridge, Tennessee on Friday, June 27, 2025 (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The cross section of the Triso fuel is visible on Friday, June 27, 2025 at Oak Ridge, Tennessee (AP Photo/George Walker IV).
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the left of Dunbrown on the right, Tyler Gelzak, is a subsidiary of Triso-X, of X-Energy, explaining how Triso Fuel is manufactured in a laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on Friday, June 27, 2025 (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The ATLAS-1 used to create Triso Fuel will be visible on Friday, June 27th, 2025 at Oak Ridge, Tennessee (AP Photo/George Walker IV).
Dan Brown, vice president of fuel development at Triso-X, X-Energy subsidiary, demonstrates how to use liquid uranium to create Triso Fuel in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on Friday, June 27, 2025 (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
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Construction continues on Friday, June 27, 2025 at the Triso-X Energy Fuel Fabrication Facility facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
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Critics who want to build more nuclear reactors say it’s too expensive and risky than other low-carbon energy sources.
“It’s not worth avoiding greenhouse gas emissions because construction costs have not been significantly reduced,” said David Kemp, policy analyst at the CATO Institute.
Kemp said Trump’s 25-year quadrant goals are unrealistic as they mean building nuclear reactors faster than ever. The US lacks commercially operating next-generation reactors, with only two new large reactors built from scratch in nearly 50 years. These two at Georgia’s nuclear power plants were completed in a few years delay, with a budget of at least $17 billion.
Works to “amp up” domestic nuclear fuel production
Many next-generation reactors use highly enriched, low-enriched uranium. According to the Ministry of Energy, it is fuel concentrated to a higher level than traditional large-scale nuclear reactor use, allowing new reactors to run longer and more efficiently, sitting on a smaller footprint and to have less waste.
Currently, very few are made in the US.
Currently, only Russia and China have the infrastructure to create large quantities of premium rich uranium. In the US, Centrus Energy has shown that it could produce the country’s first 20 kilograms of high assay low-enrich uranium in the second half of 2023 for over 70 years, producing limited quantities in commercial reactors.
According to the energy sector, a major challenge from Trump’s executive order is the need to “increase” domestic production of nuclear fuel to reduce dependence on foreign sources and enable the long-term expansion of American nuclear energy.
At the Nuclear New Nuclear Director Benjamin Holtzman’s Nuclear Energy Institute Trade Association, he said he believes the new generation of US nuclear reactors needed to meet the growing demand for electricity is ready.
X-Energy CEO J. Clay Sell said it would not hinder new reactor development as he wants to help solve fuel problems. The Energy Division awarded the funds to X-Energy. Amazon has also invested in X-Energy and is collaborating to deliver a new 5-gigawatt US power project online by 2039.
X-Energy is the only application to license new manufacturing facilities to convert enriched uranium into reactor fuel products before the US Nuclear Regulation Authority. According to the NRC, another applicant is asking for an existing license to be amended to manufacture advanced reactor fuel. About five companies have told NRC they are interested in building fuel for advanced nuclear reactors.
The National Laboratory X-Energy pilot lab was launched in 2016. Currently, the company has 100 acres in Oak Ridge and is grown for the nuclear fuel production complex.
The first factory could be operational by late 2027 or early 2028, allowing enough fuel orbs to be assembled to power the 11 of the new-age nuclear reactor. By the end of 2029, it will be two seconds and four times larger capacity, said Toriso X President Joel Deuling.
“I’ve been through two or three ‘nuclear renaissances’,” Duling said. “This is not a Renaissance. It’s a game changer.”
McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
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Original issue: July 16th, 2025, 1:11pm EDT
