Antares signs BWXT for TRISO fuel, its second fabrication deal

Antares Nuclear has signed a commercial agreement with BWX Technologies for TRISO fuel made from high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), starting with an initial allocation of one metric ton of uranium (1 MTU) that can increase as Antares' deployment schedule requires, Antares announced on October 27, 2026. BWXT will make the fuel at its Lynchburg, Virginia, facility, on the line that made fuel for the Department of War's Project Pele. Antares says the deal secures fabrication through the end of the decade.

It is Antares' second TRISO fabrication agreement, after Standard Nuclear's deal in August to supply a minimum of one MTU and up to eight MTU through 2035, and Antares now says it has two qualified sources of fuel for reactor deployments. BWXT is the incumbent of the two: BWXT-produced fuel supported Antares' 2026 Mark-0 criticality milestone, BWXT says, and Antares chief executive Jordan Bramble says the same supplier's fuel will power Mark-1, the company's electricity-producing reactor, in 2027. Mark-1 cleared its first DOE authorization gate, Antares announced on October 23.

How long the deal runs depends on whose release you read. BWXT calls it a "multi-year commercial agreement" that establishes "a framework for production," gives no end date outside Bramble's quote, and says the fuel will be delivered under "a series of future task orders" that set quantities, delivery schedules and technical requirements. Neither release gives a contract value. Antares says the Lynchburg line made the fuel for its Mark-0 and Mark-1 reactors; BWXT names Project Pele and Mark-0. Even the quote from Joe Miller, president of BWXT Government Operations, comes in two lengths: in Antares' release BWXT is "prepared to scale responsibly and reliably," and in BWXT's own it is "prepared to scale."

The supplier and the customer also share a program. BWXT Advanced Technologies is one of the five vendors the Army selected in August for Janus program microreactors, alongside Antares, which is slated for Fort Bragg. Antares says its initial production deployments to US military installations begin in 2028. One of its two fuel fabricators is a fellow Janus vendor.