The U.S. Department of Energy successfully reached an agreement last week on a nine-year deal with TRIGA International aimed at securing new fuel elements for half of the nation’s university-operated research reactors.
In an article from the Office of Nuclear Energy released on Feb. 3, the Department of Energy announced its new milestone through the agreement with TRIGA International, the world’s only TRIGA fuel supplier used for the 36 TRIGA reactors across the globe.
“This fuel procurement ensures continued operation of 12 TRIGA reactors located on college campuses across the country that are helping to train our future nuclear workforce,” said Doug Morrell, the manager of DOE’s Research Reactor Infrastructure Program. “It also secures the fuel that we need to support new DOE initiatives that will help next-generation reactor designs that can be leveraged to help decarbonize our world.”
The Department of Energy agreed to purchase 668 new fuel elements from TRIGA over the next nine years with an initial procurement of 55 elements that have the potential to be ready within the next 15 months. Once accessible, the fuel will be used to support 18 TRIGA reactors across the United States while also securing a dependable fuel supply for a handful of research reactors at Idaho National Laboratory, according to the article.
Through the new agreement TRIGA, which had recently undergone major renovations in partnership with the DOE, is expected to deliver the first batch of fuel to the U.S. sometime next year, which will be the first new TRIGA fuel elements produced in more than nine years, according to the article. Founded in 1955 by General Atomics, TRIGA, which stands for Training, Research, Isotopes General Atomics, produces reactors used for student training, various research projects and isotope production through its Research Reactor Infrastructure program within the Office of Nuclear Energy.
