Construction of two new advanced fuel production facilities in Tennessee and Idaho substantially complete, advancing toward commissioning, regulatory approval, and initiating production

Both facilities receive Preliminary Documented Safety Analyses (PDSAs) approval from US Department of Energy

Standard Nuclear (NYSE:STDN), a reactor-agnostic producer of TRISO nuclear fuel, today announced construction and regulatory approval milestones across two of its upcoming nuclear fuel production facilities, marking a major milestone as the company works to expand its capacity for bulk production of advanced nuclear fuel from its existing footprint.

The company announced construction is substantially complete for SN-TN and for SN-ID, two new identical facilities capable of collectively adding up to 5 metric tons of uranium (MTU) per year of additional TRISO production capacity once fully scaled, with the facilities initially expected to provide up to 1 MTU of additional annual capacity each. The company expects start-up, commissioning, and licensing activities to advance for both facilities over the summer.

In parallel with these construction milestones, Standard Nuclear has received approval of Preliminary Documented Safety Analyses (PDSAs) for both of these nuclear facilities from the U.S. Department of Energy. Once fully authorized by the U.S. Department of Energy, these fuel lines are intended to operate as Hazard Category 2 (HC-2) nuclear facilities.

Standard Nuclear today operates its existing SN-0 facility in Oak Ridge, TN, which is currently producing TRISO with the ability to produce up to 0.5 MTU annually.

The company’s ability to rapidly execute the buildout of multiple, strategically located sites is enabled by its rigorous process toward repeatable facility design, vendor engagement, and modular production-line replication, all of which can help reduce design uncertainty for a first-of-a-kind construction platform.

In addition, the company is continuing to build out another fuel line as a part of its joint venture with Framatome, Inc., leveraging the latter’s existing NRC license, in Washington state.

Expanding domestic nuclear capacity depends on a fleet of inherently safe advanced reactors, many of which rely on TRISO-based fuels designated as ‘functional containment’ by the NRC. As a high-performance, precision-engineered fuel, TRISO carries the primary safety function within the reactor core.