Arthur McMiler
BWX Technologies has acquired a 97-acre site at the Horizon Center Industrial Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for its planned establishment of centrifuge manufacturing facility to support the U.S. uranium enrichment capability and defense missions.
BWXT said in a statement Tuesday that the land acquisition indicates its intention to support the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and the deployment of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s technology called DUECE, short for Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment, for unobligated enriched uranium.
Defense and Energy Independence Goals
“The deployment of the domestically manufactured DUECE centrifuge resets our nation on the path to energy independence,” said Kevin McCoy, BWXT Government Operations president. He also pointed out that Oak Ridge is a “hub of innovation and nuclear expertise” prepared to support the NNSA in its national security goals.
ORNL designed NNSA’s DUECE program that seeks to update uranium enrichment technology and expertise to meet current and future national security requirements.
Parallel Nuclear Energy Projects
In August, Nuclear Fuel Services, a BWXT subsidiary, secured a one-year NNSA engineering contract for a feasibility study on a centrifuge pilot plant. BWXT said the study is proceeding on schedule and could support potential work at the Oak Ridge site.
BWXT’s advanced technologies business also entered into an agreement in July with the Wyoming Energy Authority to examine requirements for establishing a new tri-structural isotropic particle fuel fabrication facility to support advanced reactor deployment in the state. In another effort to accelerate nuclear technology development, the company inaugurated in March the BWXT Innovation Campus in its Lynchburg headquarters in Virginia.
