Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced plans during a visit to Paris last week to reinvigorate America’s nuclear fuel supply, including a partnership with the French company Orano to help build a uranium enrichment facility in Tennessee. The project can’t come fast enough.
If successful, it could reassure developers that advanced nuclear reactors won’t perish in the cradle due to shortages of fuel. It could also help address a political headache that has long plagued the nuclear industry: what to do with its waste.
Decades ago, the U.S. was the world’s leading producer of enriched uranium, which it used to power its massive fleet of reactors. Yet as the industry fell out of favor politically, the U.S. surrendered control of the supply to other countries. In fact, after the Cold War, America became heavily dependent on Russia for uranium until Congress banned those imports in 2024.
That decision made sense from a security standpoint, but it left U.S. energy markets vulnerable. Making matters worse, the U.S. has only one commercial enrichment plant, whose operator is headquartered in Britain. Another company — Centrus, which was once controlled by the U.S. government — can produce a specific type of highly enriched uranium necessary for advanced reactors, but not at scale.
Rebuilding U.S. enrichment capacity is crucial to meeting the surging demand for energy. Already, innovative reactor projects have attracted billions of dollars from investors. Among them are large tech companies looking to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom such as Google and Amazon, which was founded by Post owner Jeff Bezos.
Wright is wise to seek help from France, which has a long history of reprocessing nuclear waste into reusable fuel. Contrary to popular depictions, spent nuclear fuel is not useless. Even after spending years in a reactor, it retains more than 90 percent of its potential energy. Orano’s reprocessing site has recycled a total of about 40,000 metric tons of such waste since it opened — equivalent to half of the nuclear waste already accumulated in the U.S.
Politics previously stopped the U.S. from doing the same. President Jimmy Carter banned the practice out of fears of weapons proliferation. President Ronald Reagan later reversed that decision, but reprocessing never rebounded, mostly because nuclear companies decided that sourcing new uranium was more cost-effective. Now, with the demand for uranium spiking, companies are rethinking that approach. Last year, nuclear startup Oklo announced plans to build the first private nuclear recycling plant.
Even if reprocessing proves successful, the U.S. will need to find stable sources of raw uranium. Canada, the world’s second-largest exporter of the mineral, might be able to help meet those needs. The president’s threatening and badgering of America’s northern neighbor has made that more complicated.
It is a good sign that the administration is taking the issue of nuclear fuel seriously. If it cannot deliver, the promise of nuclear innovation will evaporate.
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