US-based nuclear power and fuel recycling company Oklo is to collaborate with isotope enrichment company Hexium and nuclear technology company TerraPower to speed up domestic production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). The three companies are also collaborating with US Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to evaluate laser enrichment. Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation (AVLIS) is a legacy technology that may offer a promising path to commercial-scale enrichment of reactor-grade uranium.
In 1999, the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) suspended development of its AVLIS technology saying the potential economic returns did not justify the financial risks. AVLIS had been undergoing final economic demonstrations at LLNL. USEC had spent about $100m developing AVLIS technology after it was spun out of DOE in 1992. USEC was privatised in 2013 and after financial restructuring in 2014, re-emerged as Centrus Energy Corp.
The new strategic partnership will assess how modern technologies, systems, and processes could unlock AVLIS’s potential as an industrial scale uranium enrichment technology to fuel the nuclear renaissance. Independent benchmarking will be provided by engineering and management services company MPR Associates.
HALEU is required for many of the small advanced reactor designs now under development and DOE projects a need for up to 40 tonnes a year by the early 2030s. Presently, there is no sustained US production capable of meeting this demand, although Centrus is developing HALEU capacity at its plant in Piketon, Ohio. Reliance on foreign sources poses energy security risks.
The new partnership aligns with DOE’s broader efforts to reindustrialise the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain, reduce geopolitical risk, and strengthen long-term energy resilience. Oklo says the partners are jointly funding and guiding research and development to deliver a validated conceptual design and techno-economic assessment of AVLIS-based HALEU production.
“This collaboration goes beyond just fuel and is about building the next generation of American nuclear infrastructure,” said Charlie Jarrott, co-founder and CEO of Hexium. “By aligning breakthrough enrichment technology with real-world reactor demand from Oklo and TerraPower and the expertise of our national laboratories, we’re advancing a solution that’s compact, scalable, and energy efficient. A validated AVLIS design for HALEU over the next year won’t just accelerate deployment of advanced reactors but will strengthen US energy security and reestablish leadership in nuclear fuel innovation.”
Oklo co-founder & CEO Jacob DeWitte, said building a secure domestic fuel supply is a national priority. “This effort supports the US goal of expanding HALEU production through innovative technologies and private-sector partnerships. This is about building US leadership in fuel technology, and laser enrichment has the potential to be a flexible, scalable option for HALEU, and a strategic asset for the US fuel supply chain.”
Jeff Miller, TerraPower’s Vice President of Business Development, said TerraPower has been committed to advancing the domestic HALEU supply chain through investments on multiple fronts. “We are excited about Hexium’s efforts to bring enrichment technology research from our national laboratories into the commercial space and glad to be a collaborator on this study,” he noted.
Unlike traditional centrifuge-based approaches, AVLIS uses finely tuned lasers to selectively ionise uranium isotopes, with the aim of enabling enrichment with greater precision and energy efficiency. Additionally, its compact design requires no chemical conversion to uranium hexafluoride, simplifying the system level enrichment process and reducing infrastructure complexity, process cost, and chemical handling requirements.
