"The Biden administration’s efforts to develop a more energy-dense nuclear fuel got a sudden $700 million windfall in the climate-and-tax bill signed into law this month, a boost for the agency’s plans to demonstrate two next-generation reactors before the end of the decade, energy officials and nuclear supporters said.

The funding—more than 15 times the program’s current annual appropriation—is a down payment for the Energy Department’s efforts to develop fuel supplies for advanced reactors, which are designed to be much smaller than the current fleet of nuclear plants.

Fuel to start up the first two agency-supported advanced reactors, under development by TerraPower in Wyoming and X-Energy in Washington state, was expected to be sourced entirely from Russia. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, US energy officials have moved urgently to wean off Russian imports of high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU."

Daniel Moore reports for Bloomberg Environment August 29, 2022. [2]