BWX Technologies signs Antares fuel deal with initial 1‑tonne allocation
Future task orders will set TRISO fuel quantities and delivery dates, while Antares targets Mark-1 electricity production in 2027.
Ines Halvorsen
An initial allocation of one metric tonne of uranium anchors a multi-year fuel-production framework announced on Tuesday by BWX Technologies, Inc. NYSEBWXT. The Oct. 27 announcement gives no contract value or unit price for the one-tonne allocation.
BWXT Advanced Fuels, its subsidiary, signed the agreement with microreactor developer Antares Nuclear, Inc. Antares’ chief executive described securing the fabrication line through the end of the decade. BWXT is a U.S.-based nuclear manufacturer serving defence, commercial energy and other markets.
Specific quantities, delivery schedules and technical requirements will be defined in future task orders as Antares’ reactor program progresses. The agreement allows the initial allocation to increase with deployment requirements. Antares plans to generate electricity with its Mark-1 reactor in 2027, before initial production deployments beginning in 2028.
BWXT shares NYSEBWXT closed at US$131.20 in New York at 4:00 p.m. EDT on Oct. 26, before Tuesday’s announcement.
“Securing that same line through the end of the decade means our first production deployments run on fuel from a team and a process we’ve already proven,” Antares chief executive and co-founder Jordan Bramble said in BWXT’s release.
Future Task Orders Will Set Fuel Deliveries
BWXT will manufacture the tri-structural isotropic, or TRISO, fuel at its Lynchburg, Virginia, facility. It will use the same fabrication line that produced fuel for the U.S. military’s Project Pele and Antares’ Mark-0 reactor.
The arrangement extends an existing manufacturing relationship. BWXT says its fuel supported Mark-0’s criticality milestone earlier in 2026, while the new framework supports Antares’ progression from demonstration to initial production deployments. The announcement does not specify how many reactors the initial uranium allocation would fuel.
Antares said on Oct. 23 that the U.S. Department of Energy had approved Mark-1’s Nuclear Safety Design Agreement. The company described that approval as the first step in DOE’s authorization pathway, establishing design requirements, the safety-analysis approach and regulatory expectations for construction and operation.
Antares says Mark-1 follows a sequence that includes a Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis and a Documented Safety Analysis. Mark-1 will use the same full-scale core, TRISO fuel and test facility as Mark-0, according to Antares. Its 2027 operating campaign is designed to run at full electrical power for several months, integrated with a nitrogen closed Brayton-cycle power conversion system.
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Another listed Antares supplier, Centrus Energy Corp. NYSELEU, announced a definitive multi-year contract on Sept. 17 to supply high-assay low-enriched uranium. Deliveries under that agreement are to begin before the decade’s end.
The Centrus contract includes prepayments from Antares to support expanded enrichment capacity. BWXT’s separate fabrication announcement discloses neither prepayment terms nor a delivery calendar. BWXT lists contract modification or termination, funding of current and future work, and performance delays among the risks to its forecasts.
The next operating milestone is Antares’ planned Mark-1 electricity-producing test at Idaho National Laboratory in 2027. Antares says data from that campaign will support initial defence-customer deliveries beginning in 2028, including Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
