A nuclear fuel manufacturing facility north of Richland is continuing its march to be on the front line of providing advanced fuels and technologies to the burgeoning U.S. nuclear energy industry. 

The facility, owned and operated by France-based Framatome, has secured licensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expand its advanced fuel capabilities, according to a company news release. Specifically, Framatome officials said it will allow the facility to focus on bringing nuclear fuel technologies to the existing U.S. nuclear fleet, including uranium oxide (UO2) pellets with higher enrichment levels, that will lead to more fuel efficiency, less waste and longer fuel cycles. 

“We are getting closer to changing the landscape of the industry by going beyond traditional enrichment levels and bringing economic and value-added solutions to our customers,” said Lionel Gaiffe, Framatome’s senior executive vice president for its fuel business unit, in a statement. 

The Richland facility has worked since 2022 to be ready to safely manufacture fuel with higher uranium content.  

Federal regulators are scheduled to visit early next year to ensure the facility has met requirements ahead of the first shipment of higher enriched material. 

Framatome has plenty of other irons in the fire with the NRC. The agency also recently approved an application and license amendment related to working with and handling uranium with higher enrichment levels at the Richland facility. 

And the company has shored up a lot of potential clients for when it can begin manufacturing fuel assemblies with higher enriched fuel in Richland.  

In March Framatome and NuScale Power Corp., based in Corvallis, Oregon, expanded their existing partnership, including putting the Richland facility on notice to fabricate fuel for NuScale’s small modular nuclear reactor fuel technology in the next five years 

In October, Framatome announced a joint venture with Standard Nuclear, the United States’ only independent developer of TRISO fuel, made for the next generation of nuclear reactors. 

The Richland facility has spent millions of dollars on facility upgrades and recently broke ground on a $900,000 warehouse that will further expand onsite storage. That project is expected to be completed in August. 

“This investment reinforces our ongoing commitment to safe, efficient operations and to meeting the growing needs of the nuclear energy industry,” the company said in a statement. 

Framatome, which employs 580 people in Richland, produces uranium dioxide powder, pellets, fuel rods and fuel assemblies for commercial nuclear power plants worldwide. Five percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. comes from fuel manufactured in Richland.