US offers nuclear energy companies access to weapons-grade plutonium

The US has offered energy companies access to nuclear waste that they can convert into fuel for advanced reactors in an attempt to break Russia’s stranglehold over uranium supply chains.

The Department of Energy on Tuesday published an application that nuclear energy groups can use to seek up to 19 metric tonnes of the government’s weapons-grade plutonium from cold war-era warheads.

It plans to announce the selection of a first group of companies by December 31 and may make further awards on a rolling basis after that date, according to a document seen by the Financial Times.

The energy department said being selected to receive the plutonium could help companies secure faster approval for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license, which is required to operate a nuclear facility.

At least two companies, Oklo, which is backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and France’s Newcleo, are expected to apply to access the government’s plutonium stockpile.

The move is the latest in the Trump administration’s attempts to boost the nuclear industry, as electricity demand grows for the first time in decades. BloombergNEF forecasts the growth of data centres used to train and run artificial intelligence models will cause power demand to more than double by 2035.

While utility-scale nuclear plants in Michigan and Pennsylvania are set to restart operations within the next two years and billions have been poured into the development of small modular reactors, fuel bottlenecks remain a key constraint on the industry’s growth.

SMRs, which could provide up to 300 megawatts of power, typically require high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, known as Haleu — the production of which is controlled by Russia.

In 2024 Joe Biden’s administration banned US imports of uranium products from Russia. The US produces less than a ton of uranium annually.

Trump in May issued four executive orders aimed at boosting the nuclear industry, two of which directed the energy department to identify and make surplus fuel available to reactor developers.

However, experts have raised concerns about the commercial use of plutonium and the risk of the material falling into the wrong hands.

“Unless you get assurances that they’re going to protect it as though it is a nuclear weapon, then it’s going to increase vulnerability to theft,” said Edwin Lyman, a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“If there were adults in the room and I could trust the federal government to impose the right standards, it wouldn’t be such a great concern, but it just doesn’t seem feasible.”

Groups applying to access the plutonium stockpile must provide details of their plans for recycling and manufacturing fuel made from the radioactive material, and their safety procedures.

French company Newcleo last week agreed to invest as much as $2bn in the US as part of a joint agreement with Oklo, with the funds going towards developing advanced fuel fabrication and manufacturing infrastructure.

Stefano Buono, Newcleo’s founder and chief executive, said they would be “very happy” to use the plutonium.

“With the 92,000 tons of spent fuel that the US has, they could have 100 years of energy independence,” he said.

However, a previous attempt to use plutonium for civil purposes was cancelled in 2018 because of spiralling costs of converting the material into fuel. Trump’s legal authority to hand out the plutonium is also not clear because Congress has control over nuclear waste.

The energy department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This story has been amended to correct the amount of plutonium companies can apply to receive from US government from 19 megatonnes to 19 metric tonnes.