Is nuclear energy a clear path to the future? Many will say that, and in recent years there has been a renewed interest in the production of small and efficient nuclear reactors. However, in 2024 Prohibition of Uranium Import Law It hit the industry. Suddenly, domestic demand for enriched uranium rose sharply. LIS Technology I’m standing up to the challenge.

LIS Technologies is a company that uses advanced laser technology to create enriched uranium, essential to fuel reactors. It may sound futuristic, but it’s a refined revival of third-generation laser enrichment technology decades ago before the US stopped developing its own nuclear fuel and switched to cheaper Russian imports instead.

“Russia is the world’s largest producer of rich uranium,” he explains. LIS Technology CEO Christo Liebenberg. “From 1989 to 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, leading to significant economic changes and changes in the global market. As the global market opened up to Russia and the money was needed to stimulate the economy, Russia sold enriched uranium at half a price.”

The US switch to imported enriched uranium has halted domestic development of nuclear technology. This includes condensation inhibitory isotope-selective laser activation (CRISLA), a technology developed by Jeff Eerkens, co-founder of LIS Technologies from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

In 2013, Eerkens teamed up with Liebenberg, a lifelong laser enrichment scientist. Together, they planned a revival of the Krisla process to create a more efficient uranium enrichment process. The process is extremely important for two reasons. First, the ban on imports from Russia created a supply deficit. Second, very efficient modern nuclear reactors rely on more concentrated fuels or high assay low concentrations of uranium (haleu).

The Russian import ban could have caused temporary disruption, but considering the rapidly changing geopolitical tensions, national security had to be protected.

Shortly after the ban, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the launch of a program to acquire enriched uranium, I was awarded a contract To six companies, including LIS Technologies.

The purpose of this program is to build sustainable fuel pipelines to support the next generation of private nuclear reactors. Photowater reactors rely on low-enriched uranium (LEU) concentrated to 3.5-5%. Advanced reactors such as SMR and MMR typically rely on high assay low enriched uranium (haleu) enriched at up to 20%. LIS Technologies is preparing to become a nuclear fuel producer for both photowater reactors and advanced nuclear reactors.

“We’re only doing it on Haleu,” explains Jay Yu, the company’s president. “So we do low-enrich uranium (LEU) at up to 5%. Then we go to 20% Haleu. We’re not going to go above 20% because that’s the weapon’s performance.”

The proportions mentioned by Yu refer to the concentration of U-235, a specific isotope that plays a pivotal role in nuclear fuels.

In its natural state, uranium has Approximately 0.7% U-235anything that is too weak does not move. Through the uranium enrichment process, companies like LIS Technology increase the concentration of U-235. The higher the concentration, the stronger the fuel.

When U-235 concentrations exceed 20%, the fuel becomes strong enough to be used to create nuclear weapons. Yu emphasizes that fact LIS Technology Does not enrich uranium for weapons applications. “We’re building nuclear fuel for peaceful use,” he says.

However, the entire LIS Technologies team recognizes that its enrichment process can be dangerous by the wrong hands. The list created a one-stage Leu enrichment method, so creating enriched nuclear fuel in several additional stages is faster and faster than ever before.

“In one stage, you get a hit of uranium once and concentrate it all the way from nature to Leu levels,” explains Liebenberg. “If it hits again – if you shoot that Leu product and use it as a feed in the second stage, you can go up to Haleu or 20%.”

This Uber-efficient process is excellent news about the development of nuclear power generation in the country, but it also calls for healthy doses. “Our technology is classified by the US,” says Yu. “The government will descend and impose security measures around us, and our patents will be removed from the public domain.”

nevertheless LIS Technology With just beginning a DOE contract, the future of US nuclear energy is already bright. Laser enrichment processes are very efficient in terms of time, money and resource conservation, so the US may not be far from having high quality nuclear fuel that is clean and safe for almost any application.

The country may have lost some position when it stopped domestic nuclear development many years ago. However, thanks to some of the other winners of the LIS Technologies and the DOE Leu program, it doesn’t take long enough to think they’ll catch up.

“There’s a huge revival, a big revival of nuclear power. We’re in the middle of a second nuclear age,” says Liebenberg. . “If you want to target nuclear triples by 2050, all enrichment companies need to be successful. That’s why we encourage collaboration rather than competition. It’s the deck-on-deck approach that meets these targets.”