Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base

Some notes from one of the new EOs

By January 2026, DOD/DOT/OMB will report the plan for closing the nuclear fuel cycle. Oklo has developed a recycling process with DOE’s ARPA-E, having successfully demonstrated the process just last year. Since spent fuel recycling is extremely expensive (France’s recycling process is state-funded), you can assume considerable funding is likely coming to Oklo for commercializing this process

By September 2025, DOE/NRC/OMB will develop a plan for converting and enriching uranium into LEU/HALEU/HEU for tritium production, naval propulsion, and nuclear weapons. Only two companies are even allowed to participate here. BWXT has the licenses to handle HEU and is already working with ORNL and the NNSA to deploy the DUECE centrifuge in support of this directive. Centrus will also likely join in due to their equipment and ownership structure allowing them to produce obligated EUP, which Urenco, Orano, GLE, and ASPI aren’t allowed to do. General Matter (GeM) has yet to b e considered for a contract to supply the NNSA, as far as I’m tracking, but they could still be a domestic option to produce unobligated EUP

No more wasting plutonium!!! DOE will develop a new plan to bring it into the above discussed recycling initiative

By August 2025, DOE/DOD “shall update the Department of Energy’s excess uranium management policy to align with the policy objectives of this order”. A little vague, but I think this is in reference to the current LEU/HEU stockpile in custody of the NNSA. Also, they “shall prioritize contracting for the development of fuel fabrication facilities that demonstrate the technical and financial feasibility to supply fuel to qualified test reactors or pilot program reactors”. Another directive to benefit the only company that currently produces research reactor fuel assemblies, BWXT. Maybe this will have the opposite effect though and diversify the supply to other fabricators like GE Vernova and Westinghouse.

Within 30 days, the DOE/AG/FTC will “seek voluntary agreements … with domestic nuclear energy companies”. Before we get into what these agreements are for, it’s worth noting the lack of defining what a “domestic” company is. Fully US owned and operated companies like BWXT, Centrus, GeM, and LIST? Or does it include domestically located companies with foreign ownership like Westinghouse, Urenco, and GLE? It doesn’t say, but given the overarching theme or national security and aversion from relying on foreign nuclear fuel support, there will likely be a heavy slant from the government to preference the fully domestic companies, in my opinion. Prioritization will be given to “companies that have achieved objective milestones (e.g., Department of Energy-approved conceptual safety design reports, the ability to privately finance their fuel, or the demonstrated technology capability) for the cooperative procurement of LEU and HALEU”. And here’s the catch-all for the rest the fuel chain, “establish consortia and plans of action to ensure that the nuclear fuel supply chain capacity, including milling, conversion, enrichment, deconversion, fabrication, recycling, or reprocessing, is available”. This is where those other entities like X-energy’s TRISO-X plant and Standard Nuclear are going to be roped in

DOE shall push for 5 GW in current plant uprates and have 10 new “large reactors” under constructions by 2030

By November 2026, DOE/DOD shall prioritize funding for companies “demonstrating the largest degrees of design and technological maturity, financial backing, and potential for near-term deployment of their technologies”. This will put more progressed companies like NuScale, GE Vernova, and Westinghouse, ahead of the pack

There are additional lines in the EO that discuss increasing the workforce for nuclear and expanding national lab coordination at universities, too.

Tons of good news with some very near term deadlines as short as 30 days