BWXT launches subsidiary to deliver commercial nuclear fuel

Lynchburg-based BWX Technologies plans to launch a subsidiary dedicated to the commercialization of fuel for the next generation of nuclear reactors, according to an announcement made this morning.

Called BWXT Advanced Fuels, the new company will pursue partnerships to deliver TRISO nuclear fuel for an anticipated “coming wave” of advanced nuclear reactors under development or in planning stages, such as small modular reactors, sodium-cooled reactors and high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs).

Josh Parker, senior director of BWXT Advanced Fuels, declined to say how much BWXT plans to invest to launch the subsidiary. Based in Lynchburg, Parker, who is currently the subsidiary’s only employee, said it’s too soon to determine how many employees the subsidiary will hire. “We’ll have more news about that as we kind of get this thing rolling and moving,” he added.

A major item on the BWXT Advanced Fuels’ to-do list, Parker said, is to “go out there and try to make decisions based on what we’re seeing in the market.” One of those decisions, he said, will be whether the subsidiary can be based out of an expanded BWXT facility in Lynchburg or if it will require building a separate facility.

BWXT first began manufacturing TRISO, or tristructural isotropic particle fuel, in partnership with Idaho National Laboratory under the Department of Energy‘s (DOE) Advanced Gas Reactor Fuel Development Program in 2003.

Described by the Department of Energy as “the most robust nuclear fuel on Earth,” TRISO comprises carbon and silicon layers surrounding a uranium fuel kernel. The fuel is able to withstand high temperatures and resist corrosion, both of which have been identified as challenges for the next generation of nuclear reactors.

Currently, BWXT produces TRISO on a low-rate production scale, according to Parker. “We can supply probably one to two reactors a year out of what we have here in Lynchburg — depends on the size of reactors,” he said.

BWXT recently completed designing and manufacturing TRISO fuel for the Department of Defense‘s Project Pele, the nation’s first mobile nuclear microreactor.

By the latter part of this decade, BWXT expects the market for TRISO to take off. “We need to be prepared to expand that capacity and to produce it at a larger scale,” Parker said.

On Aug. 12, the U.S. Department of Energy announced plans to work with 11 advanced reactor projects “to move their technologies towards deployment.” That news followed a May executive order, issued by President Donald Trump, directing national leaders to reform processes for reactor testing and establish a new pilot program for reactor construction and operation outside the National Laboratories.

“You’ve got to have reactors over here that are going to buy the fuel and use the fuel,” Parker said. “So we’re looking at the market to make sure that is actually occurring and that these reactor developers might be successful. Indications are really good.”

Two other U.S. companies produce TRISO in lab-scale operations: Standard Nuclear and TRISO-X, both of which are headquartered in Tennessee.

BWXT Advanced Fuels is in talks with a “whole bunch” of potential clients about purchasing its TRISO, according to Parker, though he declined to give specifics. “There’s about a dozen or so advanced reactors that are using TRISO that are in stages of development where they’re looking to either pilot a facility or demonstrate a facility in the next five years,” he said.

A Fortune 1000 company, BWXT has approximately 8,700 employees — including about 2,840 in Virginia — and reported $2.7 billion in fiscal 2024 revenue, up from $2.49 billion the previous year.

In February, BWXT announced it had received $2.1 billion in Navy contracts to manufacture nuclear components for Virginia- and Columbia-class submarines, and in July, it won an additional $2.6 billion in Navy contracts for nuclear reactor components. In early 2025, the company also completed its $100 million purchase of L3Harris’ Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee, in Jonesborough, Tennessee; in April, BWXT bought land in Tennessee for a centrifuge plant.