nuclear-news

A safer nuclear fuel is gaining steam — but cost remains a hurdle

New U.S. regulations and a wave of startup interest are breathing new life into TRISO-fueled reactors, which have struggled to take off due to high fuel costs.

Canary Media, By Alexander C. Kaufman, 2 June 2026

As the U.S. looks to revive its stagnant nuclear industry, a group of companies is racing to realize the promise of a ​“meltdown-proof” fuel that for decades has struggled to progress beyond federal lab experiments.

Tri-structural isotropic fuel, known as TRISO, is safer and more stable than the fuel rods used by the large-scale water-cooled reactors that make up the vast majority of the world’s nuclear power plants. Both fuel sources use enriched uranium, but in TRISO, the element is balled into poppyseed-sized spheres with ceramic coating that can absorb dangerous radioactive materials.

The hitch is the cost: TRISO is orders of magnitude more expensive than conventional assemblies of low-enriched uranium. Given that hefty price tag, only a few TRISO-fueled reactors have ever been built worldwide, even though the technology has existed for years and the world is hungry for nuclear projects that promise to avoid the worst accidents of the past…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Companies looking to go the route of microreactors and small modular reactors, however, face not only the challenges that plague large-scale reactors, such as pushback over radioactive waste and costly fuel sources, but new ones, too. For TRISO, those challenges are cost and an immature supply chain — plus the fact that the fuel’s performance remains largely untested at any commercial scale……………………………………https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/nuclear/safer-nuclear-fuel-gaining-steam

June 6, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | technology