Nucleon Fuel, a subsidiary of Canadian small modular reactor developer Nucleon Energy, has applied for a $20 million grant and a possible $10 million additional loan to build a uranium conversion facility near Gillette, Wyoming, American Nuclear Society Nuclear Newswire reported on October 26. Both would come from the state's recently created Energy Dominance Fund.
The application has passed an initial committee review and sits in a 30-day public comment period that ends November 16. Nucleon Fuel is hosting an open house in Gillette on October 28. Under Senate File 123, effective July 1, the fund can award grants and loans for coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear fuel and critical minerals processing projects, with a cap of $105 million and a requirement that applicants match the grant. Nucleon Fuel reports $20 million in private investment toward that match.
The proposed Fort Union Uranium Conversion Facility would use the company's SMR-5000 module, each rated at 5,000 metric tons of uranium hexafluoride per year. The company plans three modules for 15,000 metric tons annually and a wet process in which uranium oxide is dissolved in nitric acid. The only operating U.S. conversion plant, Solstice Advanced Materials' Metropolis Works in Illinois, uses a dry process and is pursuing a 10,000 metric ton target for 2026.
Nucleon Fuel sent the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a letter of intent in April and has not yet filed a license application. The company targets construction in 2030 or 2031. The Wyoming State Geological Survey lists four operating uranium mining projects in the state, three in the Powder River Basin where Gillette sits.
Source: American Nuclear Society Nuclear Newswire - https://www.ans.org/news/2026-10-26/article-8517/nucleon-fuel-seeks-20m-grant-for-wyo-conversion-facility/