NASA and Radiant selected to receive HALEU

Last week, the Department of Energy announced a conditional commitment to provide high-assay low-enriched uranium to NASA for its Space Reactor-1 Freedom rocket and to Radiant Industries for its microreactor expected to be sited at Buckley Space Force Base.

The announcement comes a few weeks after Centrus Energy signed a contract to finalize the terms of a $900 million DOE task order to expand production capacity for HALEU at its American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

"Today's allocations spotlight the importance of fueling advanced nuclear reactors for space exploration and national security," said Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish. "The U.S. Department of Energy's HALEU Availability Program is an important stepping-stone for the nuclear industry as we work to establish a domestic nuclear fuel supply in support of the American nuclear renaissance."

This is the DOE's third round of conditional commitments providing HALEU. For its first round, in April 2025, the DOE selected TRISO-X, Kairos Power, Radiant, Westinghouse Electric Company, and TerraPower as recipients. For its second round, in August 2025, the DOE selected Antares Nuclear, Standard Nuclear, and Natura Resources (which is backing Abilene Christian University's molten salt research reactor).

NASA: NASA's allocation will support SR-1 Freedom, a nuclear propulsion rocket that was announced in March and is targeted to launch to Mars in December 2028.

Last Wednesday, at the Genesis Mission 2026 summit, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said he hopes SR-1 Freedom will be the first of many nuclear-powered interplanetary spaceships at what he dubs the "nuclear NASA."

"We are reaching the limits of chemical propulsion, which releases just a negligible amount of energy and matter," he said, citing both fission- and fusion-based propulsion mechanisms as what the agency is looking toward.

Last week, Politico reported that NASA had confirmed early cost estimates for the rocket to be $2.1 billion. This does not include cost of the SkyFall mission that SR-1 Freedom is expected to carry.

Radiant: This is Radiant's second time being selected to receive HALEU from the DOE. The company is part of the Reactor Pilot Program and Nuclear Energy Launch Pad and has plans to deploy a microreactor to Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado. It is first in line at the National Reactor Innovation Center's Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME), where it will test a development unit version of its 1-MWe, helium-cooled, TRISO-fueled Kaleidos microreactor.

"This second HALEU allocation moves us a step closer to turning Buckley's national security requirement for resilient power into an operational reality," said Rita Baranwal, chief nuclear officer of Radiant. "America's most important national security missions need power that remains available when the grid is disrupted, fuel supply lines are strained, or conventional infrastructure is vlnerable. DOE is helping put the fuel pathway in place for Radiant to deliver that resilience at Buckley."

Hearing opportunity: Radiant submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in February for a license to possess special nuclear material at its proposed Oak Ridge, Tenn., microreactor manufacturing facility. The license would allow Radiant to receive HALEU, store it, and load it into fuel assemblies.

Interested parties have until September 25, 2026, to request a hearing or file a petition for leave to intervene, according to the notice in the Federal Register. Requests can be made through the federal rulemaking website using Docket ID NRC-2026-3598.