FluxPoint Energy Enters Race to Build First New U.S. Uranium Conversion Plant in Nearly 70 Years
A new Texas-based startup has launched an effort to build what would be the first U.S. uranium conversion facility in more than seven decades to restore a domestic capability it says has become “an unacceptable chokepoint” in America’s nuclear fuel supply chain.
FluxPoint Energy made its public debut this week at CERAWeek by S&P Global, announcing plans to convert uranium oxide into uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) at a Texas facility. Headquartered in Houston and McLean, Virginia, the company was founded by Mike Chilton, an industry veteran who has more than 30 years of experience in uranium processing and nuclear fuel development.
“America cannot lead in nuclear energy while relying on foreign-controlled fuel processing,” said Chilton, FluxPoint’s Founder and CEO. “FluxPoint was created to restore a critical piece of our nation’s energy infrastructure—ensuring that U.S. reactors have access to a secure, domestic fuel supply.”
Why Conversion - and Why Now
The nuclear fuel cycle typically includes four steps from mine to reactor: uranium is mined, converted, enriched, and fabricated into fuel. Nuclear plant operators typically purchase the yellowcake, then separately purchase conversion services, enrichment services, and fuel fabrication services from different vendors along the chain.
In conversion, yellowcake (U₃O₈) arrives at a processing facility in 55-gallon drums, is reacted with fluorine to produce uranium hexafluoride (UF₆), and exits as a gas before being cooled, liquefied, and drained into 14-ton cylinders that solidify over five days and are shipped to enrichment plants. At enrichment plants, the concentration of the fissile isotope uranium-235 is increased to the level required for reactor fuel.
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