Energy

US Selects Companies for Talks on Repurposing Cold War-Era Plutonium as Nuclear Fuel

The Energy Department advanced a plan to turn surplus weapons material into reactor fuel for advanced reactors.
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US Selects Companies for Talks on Repurposing Cold War-Era Plutonium as Nuclear Fuel
A U.S. Trident Ii, or D-5 missile, is test-fired, in this undated file photograph. AFP/Getty Images
Kimberly Hayek
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The U.S. Department of Energy said on May 26 that it has chosen five companies to begin advanced talks on using surplus plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads as fuel for next-generation reactors.

In May 2025, President Donald Trump ordered a halt to much ⁠of a program diluting and disposing of surplus plutonium, requiring instead that it be provided as ​a fuel for advanced nuclear technologies.

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Kimberly Hayek
Kimberly Hayek
Author
Kimberly Hayek is a reporter for The Epoch Times. She covers California news and has worked as an editor and on scene at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2018 migrant caravan crisis.