Standard Nuclear, a privately held fuel fabrication company based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was named on October 29, 2026 as one of eight recipients under the Department of Energy's HORNIG program. HORNIG, short for High-Performance Optimized Recycled Nuclear Isotopes for Gen IV Reactors, is run by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The company has no public ticker, and its parent company or foreign ownership is not disclosed in the source.
Standard Nuclear's award is $6,999,984 for a project titled "Mixed Oxycarbide (MCO) TRISO: Fueling Advanced Reactors with Recycled Transuranic and Uranium Feedstock." Whether the figure is a firm obligation, a ceiling, or subject to negotiation is not disclosed. The segment is fuel fabrication, specifically TRISO fuel intended for high-temperature gas reactors.
The program is tied to Executive Order 14302, "Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base." It aims to convert recovered transuranic materials, including plutonium, into domestic fuel for advanced reactors and to shorten fuel qualification time to under seven years. HORNIG builds on the earlier ARPA-E CURIE program.
ARPA-E announced up to $50 million for the program, and the eight selected projects total almost $45 million. The largest individual awards are $7 million each. The other selectees are Westinghouse, Oregon State University, Idaho National Laboratory, Oklo, Texas A&M University, Sandia National Laboratories and Exodys Energy. Those awards cover reactor, research and analytics work, and are outside the fuel fabrication scope of this report.
Standard Nuclear was founded in 2024 and acquired the assets of Ultra Safe Nuclear following the latter's bankruptcy. Its fuel fabrication plans were fast-tracked through the Department of Energy's Fuel Line Pilot Program in 2025, and DOE has allocated it high-assay low-enriched uranium. The company is building two TRISO production facilities, one in Idaho and one in Tennessee, and both are moving through DOE authorization.
Source: ANS Nuclear Newswire -- https://www.ans.org/news/2026-10-29/article-8532/does-arpae-selects-eight-transuranic-fuel-development-projects/