The government has announced a £300 million investment to support domestic production of specialist nuclear fuel that would be required for new type of nuclear power plants.
The government says the UK would become the first country in Europe to launch a high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) nuclear fuel programme. The fuel is currently produced at scale only in Russia.
The UK investment follows a $700 million US programme, launched under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, to support the development of a US domestic supply chain for HALEU. The US DOE said that “Currently, there is a very limited domestic capacity to provide HALEU from either DOE or commercial sources. This presents a significant obstacle to the development and deployment of advanced reactors and increases the risk of private investment to develop an assured supply of HALEU or to support the infrastructure required to produce it”. The so-called HALEU Availability Program “is intended to spur demand for additional HALEU production and private investment in the nation’s nuclear fuel supply infrastructure — ultimately removing the federal government’s initial role as a supplier”.
The programme includes setting up an HALEU consortium, currently with 67 members.