91探花

In today鈥檚 world, shifting geopolitical tensions have led the United States to make energy independence a priority. However, thanks to advanced uranium enrichment techniques developed by , the country could see itself become a global nuclear fuel supplier to allies.

Over the past few decades, the US has relied on Russia for enriched uranium, the material needed to fuel nuclear reactors. What many don鈥檛 realise is that prior to making the decision to purchase cheap Russian uranium in the early 1990s, the United States had a reliable domestic source of enriched uranium.

鈥淩esearch on our own CRISLA [Condensation Repression Isotope Selective Laser Activation] technology was actually well underway at that point,鈥� says Christo Liebenberg, a laser scientist and co-founder of LIS Technologies. 鈥淏ut they decided, 鈥榃hy should we develop this any further? We could just buy it on the international market.鈥� So that’s why CRISLA was stopped in 1993.鈥�

The switch to Russian fuel devastated the United States鈥� nuclear industry, and dealt a devastating blow to the country鈥檚 energy independence. 鈥淲e were the world’s biggest exporter of nuclear fuel and nuclear services before,鈥� Liebenberg adds. 鈥淭oday, we are the world’s biggest importer of all of that.鈥�

National security experts didn鈥檛 consider this an issue until recently, when the relationship between the U.S. and Russia began to rapidly deteriorate. In response, the Biden administration passed the in May 2024. The goal of this new legislation was to end the country鈥檚 energy dependence on Russia and move toward the creation of a domestic nuclear pipeline.

鈥淣ow, with this kind of deficiency, there’s a bottleneck and the US doesn’t know where to get HALEU, and none of these small modular reactor or microreactor companies know where they’re going to get their fuel,鈥� says Jay Yu, President of LIS Technologies. 鈥淪o we鈥檙e building these billion-dollar reactors, yet we don’t even have the fuel for them.鈥�

鈥淗ALEU鈥� stands for 鈥渉igh-assay low-enriched uranium,鈥� a concentrated type of nuclear fuel used by the current generation of small, efficient nuclear reactors.

Historically, enriching uranium to this level was extremely time-consuming and resource-intensive, to the point that it wasn鈥檛 viable on a commercial scale. But LIS Technologies, a company recently awarded a federal contract as part of the government鈥檚 low-enriched uranium (LEU) acquisition programme, is poised to change that.

LIS Technologies was co-founded by Dr. Jeff Eerkens, the inventor of the CRISLA process and Christo Liebenberg, a laser enrichment specialist. The two have worked to refine and improve CRISLA, and together with their technical team based in Oak Ridge Tennessee, they have plans to optimise, scale and commercialise the technology.

鈥淟aser enrichment has been around for more than 50 years, and no one has been able to successfully scale it, to take it to commercialisation,鈥� Liebenberg says. 鈥淥ur type of laser is very different from what we’ve been using in the past. I’ve given up on the prior art, which suffers from complexity and reliability issues. We’re going to use this new type of laser that’s much more scalable.鈥�

Crucially, this new method allows LIS Technologies to perform single-stage uranium enrichment. 鈥淪ingle-stage means you irradiate the uranium once, and it’s enriched all the way from natural to the LEU [low-enriched uranium] level,鈥� says Liebenberg. 鈥淚f you irradiate it again in a second stage, you can go all the way to HALEU.鈥�

Since this method is more time and resource-efficient than previous attempts at large-scale uranium enrichment, it may help the U.S. achieve full energy independence.

Putting an end to their reliance on Russia is the most important part of the puzzle. However, in a world that鈥檚 slowly moving toward large-scale nuclear energy, enrichment capability is becoming a geopolitical currency.

Once LIS Technologies fulfills its contract and builds several of these laser enrichment facilities, the U.S. will likely have an abundance of this new currency. If the country can once again become the world鈥檚 biggest exporter of nuclear fuel supplies, it may achieve greater stability and forge valuable new alliances.

While the country seems to be on its way to achieving this vision, progress in the world of nuclear technology is slow. 鈥淕etting a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission takes the longest,鈥� says Liebenberg.

鈥淚n the next two years, we’re going to repeat the 1993 results and optimise the process. Following that, it鈥檒l be two more years to show that we can do LEU and HALEU with scaled and industrial equipment, and phase three is building a commercial facility,鈥� he continues. 鈥淪o that’s the timeline 鈥� at least six years, maybe seven years, before we have product ready. Our goal is a 5 million SWU per year LEU or LEU+ plant by 2033.鈥�

That may not be quite as fast as some would like, but in a global climate where insecurity seems to be the one constant, this new development is a welcome sign that greater stability is on the horizon.