The US Department of Energy has added Utah-based startup Nusano to its Nuclear Energy Launch Pad Program, which aims to help firms commercialise nuclear technology concepts. The move is intended to boost America's domestic supply of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), the specialised fuel needed for next-generation reactors such as small modular reactors and molten salt reactors, which datacentre operators increasingly hope will power their growing energy demands. However, the announcement is unlikely to translate into nuclear-powered datacentres any time soon, since HALEU production in the US remains extremely limited and Nusano's own technology has yet to be built or tested.

HALEU is uranium enriched to between 5 and 20 percent U-235, above the under-5-percent level used in conventional reactors. The US currently relies on just one domestic HALEU producer, Centrus, which has made less than two metric tons since signing a government contract in 2019, while Russia and China hold significant enrichment capacity. Nusano proposes a novel "metal in, metal out" enrichment process that avoids the hazardous gaseous uranium hexafluoride chemistry used by rival gas-centrifuge methods, and claims each compact production unit could eventually yield 5.9 metric tons of HALEU annually — though the first unit isn't expected to be operational until 2031, and the company has not yet confirmed building even a demonstration unit.