New Brunswick SMR firm still looking for Russian uranium alternative

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One of New Brunswick’s small modular nuclear companies is still in search of a new enriched uranium supplier, after it originally planned to buy from Russia.

ARC Clean Technology says it hopes to have a fuel strategy to reveal in the “coming months.”

That’s as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to shake the global market for the fuel used in nuclear reactors, where much of the supply globally comes from.

There remains very few options to enrich uranium, a situation that is already delaying SMR technology amid a race to commercialize.

Two years ago, shortly after the outbreak of war, ARC Canada president and CEO Bill Labbe said the company’s plan to have its uranium enrichment done by Russia was to be abandoned, while acknowledging the difficulties behind securing a replacement.

Russia produces about 35 per cent of the world’s enriched uranium for reactors, about twice as much as the second-largest provider, China, while still supplying more than 20 per cent of all uranium used in the U.S.

It has meant the line up to find an alternative is long.

“ARC is working closely with suppliers of high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) to secure the fuel supply for the commercial demonstration project at Point Lepreau,” Labbe said in an email last week.

“The conversion, enrichment, and fabrication of the fuel will likely occur in the United States with options also being explored in the UK and France.

“We expect to release further information about the fuel strategy in coming months.”

Labbe originally said that the company needs enriched uranium by 2026 as it targets 2029 as the start-up date for a first reactor, to be built at Point Lepreau.

In an update, Labbe only said that “ARC is targeting early 2030s for startup of the commercial demonstration unit as stated in the provincial energy strategy released in 2023.”

Enriched uranium is an integral component of the company’s ARC-100 sodium-cooled fast reactor.

The technology uses a metallic uranium alloy fuel.

But it’s not as simple as finding that enriched uranium closer to home.

While Canada mines uranium – there are currently five uranium mines and mills operating in Canada, all located in northern Saskatchewan – it does not have uranium enrichment plants.

It does have one uranium conversion facility in Port Hope, Ont., a process needed for CANDU heavy water reactors.

It’s what Point Lepreau uses, meaning that it’s not in need of enriched uranium.

New Brunswick’s other SMR company, Moltex Clean Energy, is building what’s called a stable salt reactor that uses recycled nuclear waste as fuel and proposes to run its whole life using the spent fuel from the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station.

Meanwhile, the United States Biden administration is spending $700 million on the development of the HALEU supply chain.

The U.S. opened its first and only enrichment plant last year, operated by Centrus Energy in Ohio.

It remains the only facility in the U.S. licensed to enrich uranium.

It currently has contracts with two American companies pursuing SMR technology, although maintaining it could rapidly expand production with federal investment.

One of those, TerraPower, a nuclear reactor developer founded by Bill Gates, has said Russia’s invasion would mean a delay to the deployment of its Natrium reactor by at least two years.

When the Ohio facility produced its first 20 kilograms of enriched uranium in November, the U.S. Office of Nuclear Energy issued a statement underscoring its importance to SMR technology.

“There is no commercial source of HALEU outside of Russia currently available to fuel these reactors, and gaps in the nation’s fuel cycle infrastructure could delay the deployment of advanced reactors in a timeframe that supports the nation’s target to reach a net-zero emissions economy by 2050,” it stated.