US-based NANO Nuclear Energy said it has purchased a 1.64-acre land package in the historic Heritage Centre Industrial Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The purchase includes a two-storey building to house the company’s Nuclear Technology Headquarters. The location is near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Spallation Neutron Source, the National Transportation Research Centre, and The University of Tennessee’s Centre of Excellence in Engineering. NANO Nuclear expects to grow the number of personnel working at the facility over the next year and expects to ultimately employ up to 30 staff at the facility.
NANO Nuclear is seeking to become a commercially focused, diversified, and vertically integrated company across four business lines: (i) portable microreactor technology, (ii) nuclear fuel fabrication, (iii) nuclear fuel transportation and (iv) nuclear industry consulting services.
“Establishing our Nuclear Technology Headquarters is a critical milestone in this journey, and we are particularly honoured to build our technology home where America’s nuclear journey began,” said Jay Yu, Founder & Chairman of NANO Nuclear. “Oak Ridge, particularly the land at the heart of the Heritage Centre, has been the site of numerous groundbreaking advancements in nuclear energy, including some of the first uranium enrichment plants, the innovative liquid thermal diffusion plant, and the pilot plutonium production reactor. We are proud to continue this legacy as we progress the next generation of American nuclear innovation.”
The $1.71m property is located within the Heritage Centre, a site of great historical significance. Originally, Heritage Centre housed operations for the Manhattan Project, including several of the world’s largest gaseous diffusion plants. These facilities played a crucial, though covert, role in supporting US efforts during WWII and beyond, including fuelling the first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, and the first NPP in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. The site also hosted the “toll enrichment” programme in 1969, which was established to provide low-enriched (3-5%) uranium for use in civilian power reactors.
