Nickel is used in making stainless steel.
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The U.S. Department of Energy is inviting companies to discuss the feasibility of recovering 9,700 tons of nickel from radioactive ingots to reuse in industry.
If achievable, the recycled nickel could be used in future power generation applications for artificial intelligence, nuclear energy and electrical grid-scale batteries.
DOE issued a formal process for private industry in an “Expression of Interest” solicitation from its Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. The plant was built 73 years ago from a converted former World War II munitions to initially produce enriched uranium for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. For more than six decades, the DOE plant engaged in uranium enrichment but it is now being prepared for decommissioning and decontamination, according to DOE.
The U.S. government stockpile of this nickel was volumetrically contaminated throughout the metal which renders the metal difficult to decontaminate.
“DOE is seeking industry input for operationally mature technologies that could support the potential recovery and reuse of approximately 9,700 tons of radiologically contaminated nickel removed from uranium enrichment equipment, smelted and cast into approximately 1-ton ingots located at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant,” a project description stated.
The agency noted that information submitted by private industry would be evaluated to determine if DOE should allow companies to “selectively extract the elemental (pure) nickel from the nickel ingots, leaving behind any impurities or radiological contaminants, to produce a high purity nickel product that may be released for use in commerce.”
The deadline for responses is Feb. 19 at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Respondents should provide technical details that include readiness, product description, processing information, production yield, safety/hazard mitigation, economic interests and market maturity.
According to a January 2025 mineral commodity summary of nickel by the U.S. Geological Survey, most repurposed nickel in the U.S. comes from stainless-steel scrap metal and becomes a component in new alloys and to produce new stainless steel supplies.
