Nuclear Fuel Services

Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) manufactures nuclear fuel for the U.S. Navy’s fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines. NFS processes high enriched uranium (HEU) in a nuclear fuel fabrication facility based in Erwin Tennessee, which is licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). NFS is one of two locations that is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to store and process HEU.

NFS developed downblending technology to convert Cold War-era government stockpiles of highly enriched uranium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel. The downblending process was envisioned at the end of the Cold War by NFS and was brought to life through a historic project for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the late 1990s.

NFS also has processed a variety of special nuclear materials, ranging from the first commercial reactor fuel to fuel for research and small reactors that brought power to remote locations, such as the Antarctic. NFS' broad license offers capabilities for processing HEU and LEU materials as well as other exotic materials containing radionuclides.

The company was established in 1957 in Erwin, Tennessee, strategically located between the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN., and the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. In 2008 BWXT, formerly known as Babcock & Wilcox (B&W), finalized the purchase of NFS from NFS Holdings, LLC.