Furnace completes new production line to additively manufacture advanced forms of TRISO fuel for Gen-IV reactors.
July 22, 2025
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BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT) announced that they successfully installed and tested a specialized furnace at their Advanced Technologies facility in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The furnace completes a new production line to additively manufacture advanced forms of TRISO fuel that can be used in Gen-IV reactors.
The project was supported through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program to lower the risk of developing its BANR high-temperature gas microreactor.
Expanding TRISO Fuel Production
The newly commissioned chemical vapor infiltration furnace solidifies additively manufactured fuel forms that house TRISO particle fuel — allowing for more TRISO particles per pellet.
TRISO fuels contain layers of silicon and carbon that allow the fuel to withstand extremely high temperatures that are above the threshold of current fuels.
Each TRISO particle is about the size of a poppy seed and can be packaged into cylindrical fuel pellets or pebbles for use in high temperature gas- or molten salt-cooled reactors.
BWXT is working with Idaho National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to test and qualify a different form of TRISO fuel that contains a uranium nitride fuel kernel for higher performance.
The new furnace expands BWXT’s TRISO fuel manufacturing capabilities at the facility and is part of a larger project supported by DOE to optimize advanced manufacturing technologies that could cut the cost of microreactors to benefit future reactor designs in the process.
“Our advanced capability to manufacture TRISO fuel in multiple forms and shapes at scale will play an important role in enabling the SMR and advanced microreactor market to flourish,” said Kate Kelly, president of BWXT Advanced Technologies. “We’re proud to be working with DOE to diversify and optimize our TRISO fuel manufacturing capabilities as part of our ARDP scope and, more broadly, ensure the success of America’s growing advanced nuclear industry.”
“DOE’s support of BWXT’s microreactor design and TRISO fuel manufacturing capabilities is a great example of how we are working hand-in-hand with industry to re-establish the United States as a global leader in nuclear energy,” said Mike Goff, acting assistant secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy. “I’m excited to see this work progress and look forward to BWXT’s future accomplishments.”
What’s Next?
BWXT is expected to ramp up the commercial production of TRISO fuel in support of its commercial BANR design and to meet market demand from other TRISO fuel users.
The company is currently leveraging its existing TRISO manufacturing line to produce uranium oxy carbide TRISO fuel for the Project Pele demonstration supported by the Department of Defense.
In July of 2024, BWXT announced a cooperation agreement with Wyoming Energy Authority to explore potential locations for a TRISO nuclear fuel fabrication facility in the state.
The company also has a cooperative agreement with a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals to explore the deployment of up to eight BANR commercial reactors at a Soda Ash site in Green River, Wyoming in the early 2030s.
