Framatome wins NRC approval to make higher-enrichment reactor fuel in Richland
Framatome cleared the NRC to raise Richland fuel enrichment above 5% U-235, opening a path to 18-to-24-month cycles for U.S. reactors.
Framatome just moved one of the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle’s most important levers: the company won Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to raise enrichment at its Richland, Washington, plant from 5.0 to 6.5 weight percent uranium-235. That gives the site a legal path to fabricate higher-enrichment fuel for the domestic market, a shift that can support longer operating cycles, better fuel utilization and less frequent refueling outages for the existing reactor fleet.
The Richland plant is already being set up for the change. Framatome said modifications have been underway since 2022, and manufacturing of the higher-enriched fuel is scheduled to begin in 2027. Before first reload material can move through the line, the company expects an operational readiness review with the NRC in early 2027. That makes the approval a licensing milestone, not the finish line, but it is the key gate that turns Richland from a conventional fabrication site into a higher-enrichment production base.
The practical payoff is clear. Framatome said the approval supports its Advanced Fuel Management program for the U.S. reactor fleet, including cycle-length extensions from 18 to 24 months. The NRC also approved Framatome’s advanced codes and methods for conditions above 5 wt% U-235, along with a transport amendment allowing fresh pressurized-water reactor and boiling-water reactor fuel assemblies to move in the United States with enrichments up to 8 wt% U-235. Together, those decisions build out the technical and regulatory chain needed to make, move and use LEU+ fuel in the domestic supply chain.
Richland has been a major piece of that buildout for a long time. Framatome says the site has employed more than 600 professionals, operated for more than 55 years and held the industry’s first 40-year fuel fabrication license renewal in 2009. The facility’s current license runs through 2049, and the new enrichment authority adds another layer to a plant that is becoming a broader advanced-fuels hub. Framatome has also tied Richland to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Accident Tolerant Fuel program, to a March 2026 partnership with NuScale Power for SMR fuel fabrication, and to a May 2024 HALEU metallization pilot line with TerraPower.
Lionel Gaiffe, Framatome’s senior vice president, called the approval “the next step in bringing higher-enrichment fuel solutions to the market” and said the company is “getting closer to changing the landscape of the industry.” For U.S. utilities, the change is less about headlines than hardware: Richland now has a clearer route to supply the higher-enriched fuel that could reshape how often reactors shut down, reload and return to power.
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