America Now Disassembling Old Nuclear Warheads to Power Nuclear Reactors

A ban on Russian enriched uranium has companies scrambling.

Nuclear and Present

Numerous ventures are looking to develop small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) that are smaller and cheaper to build than traditional nuclear plants and can provide an in situ source of l0w-emission electricity.

But especially since president Joe Biden signed a ban on the import of Russian-enriched uranium earlier this year, nuclear scientists have had to resort to some highly unusual sources.

Case in point, as CNN reports, researchers and energy startups are now melting down weapons-grade uranium from unexploded warheads to power next-generation SMRs.

The "couch cushion exercise," as the Office of Nuclear Energy principal deputy assistant secretary Michael Goff called it, is a heartening example of converting weapons into something practical — not to mention a creative solution to a tricky technical problem.

Power Struggle

The uranium inside unexploded warheads isn't the only source scientists are leveraging. Others have kickstarted a new supply chain of locally enriched uranium designed for reactors.

There's plenty of money in it, at least potentially. According to CNN, the government is investing over $2 billion this year in uranium enrichment.

Meanwhile, small startups, including TerraPower, which is being backed by Bill Gates, or Oklo, which is backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, are caught in a race to turn the concept of SMRs into a reality.

Now that the US has cut itself off from Russia's enriched uranium, these companies are becoming increasingly desperate.

"We are getting to the point where we need to see more urgency from the government," TerraPower director of external affairs Jeff Navin told CNN. "There’s a huge national interest to move quickly. We don’t fully understand why that same sense of urgency hasn’t gotten to the Department of Energy in getting this material out."

As of right now, nuclear power accounts for roughly a fifth of the US electricity generation. As governments are turning to green sources of energy, the demand for nuclear fuel and reactors is expected to rise steadily.

SMRs in particular have caught the interest of officials thanks to their reliance on "high assay low-enriched uranium" (HALEU) which can be harvested from old weapons stockpiles.

For an alternative source, the Department of Energy is hoping to revitalize a domestic uranium enrichment industry, which could take many years.

Fortunately, the country's existing nuclear arsenal could give them a huge leg up.

"Within their possession, they have more than enough (highly enriched uranium) to make many, many, many tons of HALEU," Navin told CNN.

More on SMRs: AI Data Centers Need So Much Power They May Need Built-In Nuclear Reactors