Episode Description
Today, we spoke with Jean-Luc Palayer, CEO and President of Orano USA.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Orano’s Project IKE, a multibillion-dollar uranium enrichment facility in Oak Ridge. It’s one of America’s largest uranium enrichment developments for re-establishing a significant and reliable domestic nuclear energy fuel supply.
- How the company’s key relationships at the state and local government levels make Project Ike possible
- The importance of engaging with the Oak Ridge community
- Jean-Luc’s analysis of the fuel recycling process and its impact on the industry and our nation
Plus…
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Episode Transcript
Cortney Piper
Jean-Luc Palayer, CEO and President of Orano USA, thanks for joining us on the show.
Jean-Luc Palayer
Cortney, it’s always a pleasure to meet with you. So and thank you for having me.
Cortney Piper
Well, let’s get started because I think the story of how Orano USA came to Tennessee is really unique and interesting. So let’s start at the beginning, set the stage. Orano is new to Tennessee. So talk to us about Project Ike. You all had a code name before we knew you were Orano. Talk to us about Project Ike and how you came to our great state.
Jean-Luc Palayer
Thank you, because it’s a very good question. I mean, first, Orano USA, we’ve been present in the US for 61 years, so we’ve been well established. We have about 15 facilities and entering offices across the states, but none in Tennessee. And back in so this project started back in February 2022, unfortunately, because it was uh started with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And many of our customers, in particular in the United States, came to see us and said we would like to get access to enriched uranium free from Russian influence. So the easiest way, I mean the fastest way for us to provide these uh resources to our customers was to expand our current plant in France, in uh in uh in Turkestan, so it’s the southern part of France. It’s called called GB2. This is the largest European enrichment plant, and we have decided at that time to increase by 30%. Also, for us, it was making a lot of sense to start a project in the United States. So this project we kicked in around uh I would say June of 2023. And at that time I said to my team, because we owned a site in Idaho, we already had a license from the NRC to build and operate an enrichment plant in Idaho, and I said to my team, guys, let’s restart this project in Idaho. And they say, no, no, wait, why don’t we do a site section? I said, for what? We already have a site. We never know. I said, okay, no problem. So my first meeting was with this consulting firm called MacMully. We are in Memphis, Tennessee. It was, I remember, was in November of 2023, and it gave me a proposal for uh for about 10 sites across five states, and Oak Ridge was not on the map at that time. So I know it’s a secret city, everybody knows this, but it was not on my map. And I met with uh several states, uh, with two governors, several states, but none of the sites which were proposed to be were ideal for a project. And I went back to my consultant and said, I don’t think that we found the right site. I said, Oh, by the way, and it was in March of 2024, Oakridge is interested. Can we show you the site? I said, why not? Everybody knows Oak Ridge, where enrichment started. I said, Yeah, let’s go. But my goodness, it was the best meeting that we ever had. I mean, the entire community was uh there. I remember there was uh Mayor Wet Cresswell, Mayor Terry Frank, uh Randy Hammond, the city manager of Oak Ridge, Mike McGill, who presented the education program, uh, Tracy Butter from the e-tech. Everybody was there and uh and also DWE and UCOR. And the site they proposed first is a Dewey site. I mean, this is called SSP2, so self-sufficient parcel number two. Don’t ask me why this is this acronym, but this is the name of the site. It was a wonderful site which was I would say used by Dewey in the past during the Manhattan project. I mean, not during the project, sorry, after the Manhattan project, and currently the remediation by uh by UCOR. And the local community was really, really interesting in having us, and the nuclear culture, as you know, in Oak Ridge is amazing. But also during that meeting, I mean, they showed me this video of Governor Lee, where he shared his vision regarding the development of a nuclear policy and nuclear energy in the state. And I could really feel that there was a clear alignment at the state level, county level, and at the city, and in the city of Oak Ridge. So it was really amazing, this alignment, this willingness, I would say, to promote nuclear energy in uh in Oak Ridge, but also the nuclear culture, as I say, from the local community and the very strong support that we got from the community. But also the education program, because Mike McGill, what he presented at that time, was really remarkable. I mean, to see that the state of Tennessee with a county, with a city, has an education program that involves not only the universities, the University of Tennessee, of course, but also Tennessee Tech, but also the local community colleges, the TCATs, and even the high school of Oak Ridge. And as you know, workforce is very key for our project to be successful. And seeing that, feeling that, I said Oak Ridge is our site number one and is how we change from Idaho to Tennessee.
Cortney Piper
This alignment that you describe between state government, local government, our education institutions, I have to imagine that’s pretty unique. So, can you describe what it was like interacting with our state and local governments and how that might have compared to other states that were courting Orano?
Jean-Luc Palayer
As you say, it’s clearly unique. And I will talk about first the vision from Governor Lee, because people forget, but yes, his vision back in 2022. Today nuclear is a solution, but back in 2022, nuclear was a problem. And you people forget that, but people wanted to shut down the nuclear power plants. I even had a dismantling business unit because we ex the market expected that 50% of the nuclear power plants would be shut down in the US. And Governor Lee, back in 2022, had this vision that no, nuclear energy is not a problem, it’s the solution for nuclear, no, sorry, for energy security. And this vision was, I would say, converted into a nuclear policy that Commissioner McCrawder and Bradon Gibson, the chief operating officer, implemented. And this vision and policies were also shared by the local communities, as I said, at the count at the county level and the city of Oak Ridge. And this one was very, very important for us. In addition, as you said, this education program is unique to see that the entire spectrum of the education of the education, I would say, um of the education entities starting from the universities and ending to the high schools is also remarkable, is unique to Oak Ridge. I will tell you that it was back in 2022, we made the decision in 2024, but today I’m contacted, I was contacted by several states’ uh representatives from other parts of the country to see how Tennessee was so successful and what have been done for regarding their education program. So today uh some states are wants to do exact want to do exactly what what Tennessee did back in 2023. From 2022 to 2024.
Cortney Piper
So are you sharing our secrets with other states?
Jean-Luc Palayer
I’m not sharing the secrets, I’m sharing the facts.
Cortney Piper
That’s great. You know, I love to hear that Tennessee is doing so many good things in the advanced energy area because that’s why the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council was formed. We have so many unique assets, so many businesses, research institutions. It is such a central part of our economy and for other states to look at what Tennessee is doing and say, hey, how can I get a little bit of that? shows me that we are doing something right and we are definitely leading. So speaking of leading, that brings me to the nuclear renaissance. We are either right at the beginning or squarely in the middle, depending on who you talk to. So describe Project Ike and Orano’s role in rebuilding our US nuclear fuel production.
Jean-Luc Palayer
Yes. So today, the US government has the objective to quadruple nuclear energy output. So we have about 100 gigawatt of nuclear uh capacity, and we have to go up to 400 gigawatt by 2050. This is a significant and challenging, I would say, increase in terms of uh nuclear capacity. The country will be successful by developing its supply chain. Supply chain to build new reactors, whether they are micro, small, advanced, or large, like the AP 1000, but also successful in the development of its supply chain in terms of nuclear fuel. Today, the United States imports about 60% of its annual uranium from foreign countries, including 25 to 30% from Russia and China. And as you know, they are not our reliable partners anymore for the fuel supply. And that’s why it’s so critical that the United States div re uh reinvigorate and uh redevelop its own domestic capacity of enriched uranium. So that’s why Project ACE is so critical because our objective is to build a plant in Oakish Tennessee that will supply as much or about the same as what today we import from Russia in terms of enriched uranium. But it’s based on today’s needs of 100 gigawatt. If and hopefully the United States will be successful, but when the United States quadruples its nuclear energy output, you can imagine that the needs of energy uranium will increase significantly. Today the needs of and about 2,000 tons per year. If we quadruple this need, it will go up to 8,000 tons per year. And on top of that, if you had the needs of the advanced reactors that needs higher Siloan Utranium, so that is that means that we need and utterranium at a higher level. This need the the yearly need of and utronium could go could be between 8,000 to 10,000 tons per year. This is significant from 2,000 tons today. But out of these 2,000 tons, as I said earlier, 60% are imported from foreign countries. If the United States wants to be self-sufficient, it means that we need to add more capacities of enriched uranium today, and there’s no time to lose. We as the industry we need to all work together to ensure that our customers, the nuclear utilities of the future operators of the advanced reactors, they have the nuclear fuel that they need today and tomorrow.
Cortney Piper
Jean-Luc, you are so right. The amount of enriched uranium we will need to revitalize our nuclear energy, supply chain nuclear energy in general is just so tremendous. It will take a coordinated industry effort. And it is quite frankly more than any one company could probably provide when you look at the sheer volume. So when are we gonna get you, when are you gonna be enriching uranium in Oak Ridge?
Jean-Luc Palayer
This does not happen tomorrow. It won’t happen tomorrow, as you said, because first we need to get the license from the safety authority NRC. We need to get the permits from TDEC and the city of Oak Ridge, of course. Uh we need uh to mobilize, and we are uh currently in the in this phase to ensure that we our project will be on time and on budget, and our objective will be to start production in 2031 about. Excellent. Excellent.
Cortney Piper
Now let’s talk about something that is also very beneficial to our state, very beneficial to the nuclear renaissance, and that and something that Orano has experience with. Tennessee was recently named as a finalist for the Nuclear Life Cycle Innovation Campus. Can you talk more about nuclear fuel recycling? Talk more about what it is, Orano’s experience with it, and why it presents such a great opportunity as we’re thinking about revitalizing our nation’s nuclear renaissance.
Jean-Luc Palayer
So, what we do in France, and we have done it for the last uh, in fact, uh 70 years, because we started that in 1958. Uh, but I will talk about our recent experience with our largest uh reprocessing facility that started operations in 1976. So exactly 50 years ago, so it’s called La Hague, it’s a reprocessing plant. So in this plant, we take the nuclear use fuel and we separate in the during the process the plutonium, the uranium, and the final waste. You need to know that in the nuclear use fuel, 96% of the material can be recycled and reused as new fuels. This is the plutonium and the uranium. It’s huge, yes, huge. And the remaining 4% cannot be used and would be put, I would say, for final disposal. And is what we do in is what we do in France. So we have done this successfully for the last uh 50 years, and we produce recycled fuels with uh plutonium and the uranium that is burnt again in the in the reactor. So we have four reactors for I mean we have four reactors in France, for instance, that are licensed to burn what we call the reprocessed uranium. So this is uranium coming from the reprocessing. And about one reactor out of three in France burns the plutonium in what we call the MOX fuels. So it’s uh it’s a combination of uh plutonium and some depleted uranium to create uh this uh this uh recycled fuels. Also, we have provided this service, this service of reprocessing and recent to many of our customers, in particular in Europe, to give you some examples. So, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, and even Germany. So we have reprocessed their fuels and provided them with uh recycled fuels. And also we provide this service uh to Japan and even to Australia. Also, back in 2005, I mean we have been asked by the US government to recycle some plutonium owned by DOE, and so we did that, and we supplied some uh mox fuels which were burnt in uh reactors in the United States. So this reprocessing and recycling is a way I would say to not only to reuse the energy in the nuclear use fuel, and as you said, it’s huge, it’s 96% that you can reuse, but on top of that, it’s a way to significantly reduce the toxicity and the volume of the funnel waste to be disposed of. In France, because we have no space, real estate is very expensive. The same for Japan, the same for the European countries. I would say in the United States, there’s a uh I mean real estate is today maybe not a problem, but tomorrow, with a I would say the willingness of the US government to quadruple nuclear nuclear energy output, it would be very important that the nuclear the final nuclear waste to be disposed of or reduced as much as it’s possible.
Cortney Piper
And that’s what this nuclear lifecycle innovation campus seeks to do, correct? This gives us an opportunity to extract more energy out of the used fuel that would otherwise go to waste. And there is no reason, there is no good reason to do that. You can get more energy out of that used fuel, and then the amount that is truly waste is actually significantly smaller than if you did not do this recycling. So it sounds like a no-brainer to me. Am I missing something?
Jean-Luc Palayer
It sounds like a no-brainer to all of us. However, I would be honest, uh, is I I would like to come back to this uh date of 1976, because 1976 is the date when we started our latest uh reprocessing plant in France, but this is also the date uh when the United States government decided to stop reprocessing in the US due to political uh concerns related to non-proliferation. So, and for the last 50 years we have not done reprocessing in the US. Of course, I mean the national apps have continued to develop some maybe some new technologies in terms of reprocessing, but there has been no commercial plant ever built in the US for the last 50 years. So we have to restart, I would say a new industry. That is not so easy because uh reprocessing uh requires, I would say, uh more investment than a simple, I would say, than an enrichment plant, for instance. It requires, I would say, uh, hopefully the use of new technologies, and we are very open about it. I mean it will, as a Rhino, we will not invest in a reprocessing plant in France because our priority is to make sure that we’re successful with Project Ike. So we’ll put all our resources in the US into Project Ike and our other activities over the last 60 years. But we are willing to support the states, our industrial partners in their plan to build a reprocessing plant. But it will take some time, to be honest with you, because we need to ensure that first the local communities that will see the reprocessing plant will be in favor of this kind of uh new uh technology, of course, in their community. And second, there are also some customers for the off-tech contracts. We have customers to reprocess and recycle in Europe and Japan, but this market also needs to be developed in the United States.
Cortney Piper
Excellent. Well, I’m sure we will be relying on Orano for some expertise as this as this project evolves. Now, the Tennessee Nuclear Network, which our friends at eTech run, has also talked about how high tides lift all boats in terms of the nuclear industry. There’s more an industry coming to Tennessee, and I’m sure you all are vying for the same workforce and other sorts of resources. So, how has Orano experienced this mutual success when everybody else seems to be coming into the market and your competitors are also doing well?
Jean-Luc Palayer
Yes. So, first regarding our competitors, we welcome, of course, all of our projects because first we need competition. This is good for the market, for our customers, and for the country. So we love to have competitors, and in addition, as I said earlier, with the objective of the United States quadrupling nuclear energy output by 2050, we need more enrichment capacity. And we need all the projects to be successful. Also, we applaud the Department of Energy’s decision to give you know a $900 million award to, of course, to Rano for the low enriched uranium program, but also to General Manor and Centrus for highest low-enrich uranium program, because this program was uh was developed by the by Congress to make sure that there would be new enrichment capacity to be developed in the United States. And it’s a way to jumpstart this new uh enrichment capacity. So we need everybody, we need everybody to be successful. And as I say, we welcome our competitors for two reasons, because we need competition for the country and for our customers, and we need more enrichment capacity anyway to ensure that all the current reactors and the future reactors to be built in this country will get enough fuels and will be independent in terms of import from Russia and of course uh from China. So, this is our my first point regarding the competition. Regarding uh, I would say the other companies coming in town. You’re right. I mean, uh there’s uh some tensions regarding uh the resources and so on, but we want to work also as a as a partner because we have the same needs as some of the other companies in terms of uh workforce development. We want to ensure that the local TCATs, one state community college, or PACP Community College, have the right programs to develop the workforce. What we need. And it and we don’t need, of course, we need engineers, we need nuclear engineers, mechanical engineers, but also we need many operators, we need uh project managers, we need uh financial people, and we need other staff positions. And we have common needs with uh I would say our uh our peers who want also to be in in Oakridge or who have already been in Oak Ridge, and we have already started discussions with uh some of our partners, like Oakridge National Lab, to develop some training program that would be common between different, I mean between Oak Rish National Lab and Orano to ensure that we have the right uh uh I would say workforce and skills uh that would be needed to operate uh our plants.
Cortney Piper
Let’s talk about workforce development because it’s the thing that’s on everybody’s mind. I can’t turn around in Oak Ridge without somebody talking about workforce development. You mentioned some partnerships that Orano has to bolster your workforce, but talk more about Orano’s approach to workforce development.
Jean-Luc Palayer
So we have our approach we really want is to. work with uh with the universities but also with the community colleges and the ticats but also with even with the high school and uh so we we of of course we we met with uh university of tennessee tennessee tech i met with ransom community college uh several times i have a meeting with pacp uh very soon but even the high school is is uh for us meeting with the high school is very important i mean back in t back in 2025 one of my first i would say uh presentation was to Awkridge high school and some people asked me at that time why because our project as I said we we started uh production in 2031 but then we’ll have a ramp up phase until we reach full capacity and this project from today will last for the next uh 10 years in terms of uh construction ramp up and com and commissioning and ramp up and I know that my future operators my future engineers my future project managers are currently in in high school and I want to ensure that not only the with the the the faculty of the high school but also the the the high schoolers they know about uh Urano they know about Project IC so that uh when they are ready to to find a job they would they would think of us so we really want to develop these long-term partnerships with the faculties and with the students as early as we can in terms of I would say in in in in terms of our educational program.
Cortney Piper
What do you say to high school students to first of all get them interested in nuclear energy but also Orano? I mean these are these are kids they’re 16 17 15 years old what do you say to these kids to get them interested in the industry?
Jean-Luc Palayer
So it’s a very good question because it’s what I want to make sure that that they’re interested in joining the nuclear energy but most I would say uh you know in the high school of Aukridge I’m very amazed by the the the culture that they have already uh regarding nuclear energy is thanks to their parents to their neighbors the fact that Oak Ridge has been embedded in the development of nuclear energy not only in the United States but in the world. So they want to work in nuclear energy, and I’m very delighted about it. We explain of course of our history that we’ve been here in the US for 60 years and also for our mission. Our mission is to ensure that the United States will have domestic capacity of Henry not only to support the needs of its nuclear reactors but also to stop its reliance on Russia and China regarding the import of enriched uranium, and this is a key statement that resonates a lot even to high schoolers.
Cortney Piper
Yeah I can see that it it this newer generation I mean even myself included when I was looking to enter the workforce I wanted mission driven work. I wanted purpose-driven work. And certainly Orano and other folks in the nuclear supply chain can offer that to high school students, to young people, that this is mission-driven, purpose-driven work. There is a bigger purpose that you are working for every single day. The paycheck is great. The things you can buy with that is great but there’s a larger purpose and a larger mission I have to imagine that really resonates with high school students in particular.
Jean-Luc Palayer
Exactly, and this is a very important statement that you made because it is what we do when we meet with high schoolers, but also with the students of universities and community colleges.
Cortney Piper
Jean-Luc, closely related to workforce development, is community engagement. More people are paying attention to industries entering their communities, especially tech and energy. How does Orono balance progress with community buy-in and local engagement to maintain trust?
Jean-Luc Palayer
Local engagement is our number one priority and we really want this to be transparent as we have been in I would say for the last 60 years in the United States but even more active with the local community as soon as we started Project AC we participated in many local events and we continue to do so. I mean we uh we had meetings with the Chamber of Commerce I went to the City Hall for Oakridge to to present the project I was invited also by by the Council of Oakridge and and just after Christmas also to give an update to the local community and we welcome this kind of intervention and to answer questions from the public because we want to be transparent and to demonstrate of course to the local community that our project is important for the United States for the state for our customers but also for for them and this one requires a lot of communication we have of course our FAQs on our website where people can look at and get answers and if they don’t get the right answers should not hesitate to contact us directly. We have an office in Oakridge we have been very active for the last year we participated in in the in local events like the science uh nuclear science week we will the next one will be in October we sponsor the big exhibition of regarding nuclear enrichment in the K-25 museum and we’ll continue to do so because we want to be a very active and transparent member of the local community an active citizen and constituent.
Cortney Piper
Alright Jean-Luc where can people learn more about Project Ike?
Jean-Luc Palayer
So first, go to our website, Orano Group, and you will see there’s a dedicated page for Project Ike, of course, on LinkedIn. Please follow us, Orano USA, and you will have many updates on Project Ike. Also, we’re on Twitter, on Thread, and other social media. I’m very good at LinkedIn.
Cortney Piper
You’re very good you are very active page too but uh please follow us uh and we and you will get a lot of um I would say updates on uh Project Ike you are extraordinarily active on LinkedIn and I will say if anybody wants to know what you are up to and also about Project Ike you can follow Jean-Luc on LinkedIn and you’ll get all the inside details. Jean-Luc Palayer, thank you for joining us and being on Energizing Tennessee
Jean-Luc Palayer
thanks so much first for having me but more importantly is what we you do also for the community I mean your organization and what you do are so important to promote not only uh energy in Tennessee and new and and and uh and innovation and new technologies but also to promote Tennessee to the world. So thanks so much for everything that you you do.
Cortney Piper
Well, thank you, and that’s our show. Thanks for tuning in to Energizing Tennessee, powered by the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council, your number one podcast for news about Tennessee’s advanced energy sector. If you like what you heard, please share it with others or leave a rating and review. To catch the latest episodes, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t forget to follow TAEBC on social media or sign up for our newsletter to hear about our events and learn even more about Tennessee’s growing advanced energy economy. Thank you for listening to Energizing Tennessee