Inside the race—and the uranium gap—to rebuild America’s fuel supply chain for a ‘second nuclear age’

Nuclear startup firm Antares successfully flipped the switch on its Mark-0 microreactor in June, first to the finish line in the Trump administration’s pilot program race—with a July 4 deadline—for the next generation of reactors to achieve criticality.

With the U.S. on the verge of a potential “second nuclear age,” a bevy of projects are underway to power the AI boom. But almost the entire North American nuclear fuel supply chain is woefully lacking—from uranium mining to fuel-pellet fabrication—just as Congress bans imports of enriched uranium in 2028 from Russia, which dominates the industry.

The AI hyperscalers are signing contracts with nuclear developers for next-generation light-water reactors, as well as newly developed small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors. But they’re not yet investing in the uranium mining and refining required for nuclear power. Roughly 98% of the uranium consumed by U.S. reactors is imported.

“The nuclear industry is in a total renaissance,” said Christo Liebenberg, co-founder and president of the laser uranium enrichment startup LIS Technologies. “But it doesn’t matter what type of reactor; they all need nuclear fuel.”

“It doesn’t stop there,” Liebenberg to...