NRC Issues TRISO-X License to Manufacture HALEU Nuclear Fuel in Tennessee

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted TRISO-X, LLC a Special Nuclear Material license on February 13, 2026, clearing the way for what regulators themselves describe as a "first-of-its-kind fabrication operation in the United States": a facility that will manufacture high-assay low enriched uranium fuel on a 110-acre site at the Horizon Center in Oak Ridge, Roane County, Tennessee.

License No. SNM-7007, issued under 10 CFR part 70 ("Domestic Licensing of Special Nuclear Material") and formally recorded in the Federal Register on March 16, 2026 as Document 2026-05086 (91 FR 12627), authorizes TRISO-X to operate its Fuel Fabrication Facility and to possess and use special nuclear material to produce HALEU fuel. The facility will manufacture tri-structural isotropic-based coated particles and final fuel forms using uranium enriched to less than 20 weight percent uranium-235. TRISO-X will be required to operate under the conditions listed in Materials License No. SNM-7007.

The path to the license ran through a multi-stage environmental review under Docket No. 70-7027. The NRC issued a draft Environmental Impact Statement on September 26, 2025 (ADAMS Accession No. ML25267A128) and published a Federal Register notice requesting public comment on October 23, 2025 (90 FR 48508). After the comment period drew sufficient interest, the NRC extended it on November 17, 2025 through December 8, 2025 (90 FR 51412). The final EIS, incorporating responses to those comments and conforming changes where appropriate, is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML26033A130. Alongside the final EIS, NRC staff published a Record of Decision supporting the agency's determination to approve the license application.

The draft EIS notice was signed by Kimyata Savoy, Acting Deputy Director of the Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support within the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, and dated October 21, 2025.

HALEU fuel, enriched above the 5 percent threshold of conventional light-water reactor fuel but below the 20 percent ceiling that defines low enriched uranium, is the fuel type required by many advanced reactor designs currently in development across the United States. The TRISO-X facility in Oak Ridge would be the first domestic commercial-scale source for this fuel form, a gap that has long been identified as a bottleneck for the advanced reactor pipeline.

Readers seeking the primary documents can access the final EIS through ADAMS using accession number ML26033A130. The NRC's Public Document Room can be reached at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email at PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. The official license issuance notice is available as a PDF through the Federal Register's sidebar for Document 2026-05086.