A new nuclear fuel plant rising in Tennessee is turning a once-esoteric technology into a cornerstone of the energy transition. By pairing a next-generation facility with what its backers call the most robust nuclear fuel on earth, the project is designed to prove that fission can be cleaner, safer, and more flexible than the industry’s legacy image suggests.
The construction launch signals that advanced nuclear is moving from lab-scale experiments to commercial hardware, with implications that stretch from local jobs to global climate targets. It also places a little-known fuel, TRi-structural ISOtropic particles, at the center of a high-stakes bet on how to keep the lights on in a decarbonizing world.
Oak Ridge’s new fuel plant and the promise of TRISO-X
The new facility taking shape in Oak Ridge is known as the TRISO-X Fuel Fabrication Facility, or TF3, and it is being built to manufacture commercial quantities of advanced nuclear fuel. The plant is designed to produce TRi-structural ISOtropic particles, better known as TRISO, which are engineered to withstand extreme conditions that would challenge conventional uranium fuel. According to project backers, the goal is to create a dedicated industrial base for this ultra-robust fuel so that next-generation reactors are not held back by a lack of supply, and the TF3 complex is central to that strategy as a commercial-scale production hub for TRISO fuel kernels made from uranium, carbon, and oxygen.
The company behind TF3, TRISO-X, presents the Oak Ridge project as a bridge between decades of research and a new wave of reactors that need fuel capable of operating at higher temperatures and under more flexible conditions than traditional light-water designs. Reporting on the construction start notes that the plant is expected to be fully operational by 2028 and to employ upwards of 500 people once it is running at scale, a sign that this is not a pilot line but a serious manufacturing investment. The TF3 site, described in technical coverage as a commercial-scale advanced nuclear fuel facility, is intended to turn TRISO from a niche research material into a workhorse of the emerging advanced nuclear fleet, with each particle acting as its own miniature containment system for radioactive material.
“Most robust fuel on earth”: what makes TRISO different
TRISO fuel is often described by engineers as the most robust nuclear fuel on earth because each grain of fuel is encapsulated in multiple protective layers. Instead of relying on long metal-clad rods filled with ceramic pellets, TRISO uses a uranium-based kernel that is coated in three distinct layers of ceramic and carbon materials, creating a tiny sphere that can tolerate very high temperatures without failing. In effect, every particle is its own containment system, designed so that even if a reactor’s coolant is lost or temperatures spike, the fuel itself remains intact and keeps fission products locked inside…