Property transferred to nuclear fuel company
Amid applause from local and state officials, TRISO-X President Peter Pappano and Industrial Development Board Chairman David Wilson recently signed documents transferring 110 acres of land in west Oak Ridge to the company.
The land in west Oak Ridge's Horizon Center came from the IDB.
"We're going to make this the biggest thing to happen to Oak Ridge since the Manhattan Project," Pappano said at the event.
The company plans to create a new type of nuclear fuel and employ 400 people, Pappano said at the meeting, repeating points he'd made in an earlier announcement.
It will be the United States' first commercial advanced High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) based nuclear reactor fuel fabrication facility of its kind, an official news release from the company stated. Pappano said it will generate eight metric tons of uranium per year.
He said groundbreaking for the facility may occur this year, and the facility will be operational in 2025. The fuel involves storing the uranium inside of graphite "pebbles."
The group already has some presence in Oak Ridge at various offices in Mitchell Park, Pappano said.
"I couldn't think of a better place to do this," Pappano said. He said he used to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The signing event for the transfer of property took place at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce building and brought in officials, including Tennessee Rep. John Ragan, Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch, Oak Ridge City Council member Jim Dodson, City Manager Mark Watson, Deputy City Manager Jack Suggs and Chamber President Christine Michaels.
Wilson compared the enthusiasm for this project, as well as the also proposed Kairos reactor, to the previous proposal for a motorsports park, which some members of the public rejected and which ended up in Cumberland County instead of Oak Ridge.
"We came along and said, 'There's a company called Kairos and they want to build a reactor. Nobody said a word in our community. And you know why? Reactors are common. And we've already announced that TRISO-X is going to build or going to manufacture fuel. So far nobody said a word. You're in a community where they accept you wholeheartedly without much conversation," Wilson said.
He spoke positively of the jobs and tax revenue the project will generate.
Safety and storage
After a question about waste storage, Pappano said the fuel produced at the facility in Oak Ridge will go to a utility in Washington state, Grant County Public Utility District, which would be their main customer. At an earlier point, he said the facility could serve others. The pebbles of fuel — after running through the reactor — will stay on that site in an above ground, air-cooled canister for most of the reactor's life. He said they didn't need to be stored in deep places like at Yucca Mountain because they are low level hazardous waste once spent.
He said he did not expect to store any waste from any step of the process in Tennessee.
He said it would be "really, really hard" for a "bad guy" to get the uranium out of the graphite pebbles, pointing out that graphite doesn't burn, melt or react with chemicals.
Ben Pounds is a staff reporter for The Oak Ridger. Call him at (865) 441-2317, email him at bpounds@oakridger.com and follow him on Twitter @Bpoundsjournal.
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Nuclear fuel company takes control of Oak Ridge property
