US-based NANO Nuclear Energy has announced progress in its initiative to develop a proprietary, optimised transportation solution for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel. The project leverages NANO Nuclear’s licensed nuclear fuel transportation basket design, developed with the technical support of GNS Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH.
NANO Nuclear and GNS signed an agreement in September 2024 to develop a robust, innovative, and regulatory-compliant HALEU transportation package, designed to support the rapidly growing demand for advanced nuclear fuels needed for next-generation reactor technologies. GNS is recognised for its expertise in transport and storage cask design, licensing, and manufacturing, as well as advanced technologies for nuclear waste processing and facility decommissioning.
NANO Nuclear is undertaking these efforts through its subsidiary, Advanced Fuel Transportation, as part of its overall mission to develop commercially focused, vertically integrated capabilities across the nuclear energy supply chain including development of microreactors.
The HALEU transportation package currently under development is designed to support the transport of multiple advanced nuclear fuel types. These include uranium oxide fuels, TRISO particle fuels, uranium-zirconium hydride fuels, uranium mononitride fuels and molten salt reactor fuels. This ensures that the transportation system can serve the diverse fuel requirements of emerging microreactor, small modular reactor (SMR), and advanced reactor technologies.
NANO Nuclear holds the exclusive licence from Battelle Energy Alliance, operator of the Idaho National Laboratory, to develop the proprietary nuclear fuel transportation basket and cask design based on the NANO Nuclear-GNS collaboration. which has completed several major early-stage engineering milestones for the project. These include:
- Development of conceptual designs for two optimised fuel payload baskets capable of transporting HALEU materials in multiple fuel forms;
- Completing a preliminary design for the transport package overpack, which will house the payload baskets during shipment; and
- Conducting initial regulatory and engineering analyses to evaluate the design’s compliance with nuclear transportation regulations.
The work was performed under a formal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Quality Assurance programme, ensuring that all engineering and design processes align with the safety and documentation standards required for nuclear transportation systems.
With these foundational design milestones completed, NANO Nuclear intends to continue advancing the fuel transport package through the next phases of development, including further engineering validation and regulatory engagement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
By developing its own optimised HALEU transportation solution, NANO Nuclear aims to help remove a key logistical bottleneck facing the advanced nuclear sector while positioning itself as a significant contributor to the emerging HALEU ecosystem.
“HALEU fuel logistics will be one of the foundational pillars of the advanced nuclear industry,” said Jay Yu, Founder and Chairman of NANO Nuclear. “Our collaboration with GNS has brought together world-class nuclear transportation expertise with NANO Nuclear’s proprietary fuel basket technology. Achieving this early design milestone represents an important step toward building the infrastructure needed to support the deployment of advanced reactors across the United States and globally.”
