The United States is preparing to bring a Cold War era nuclear complex back into active use, turning a long dormant 190,000 sq ft facility into a cornerstone of its next generation fuel strategy. After roughly three decades in surveillance mode, the Fuel and Materials Examination Facility is being repurposed to support advanced reactor fuels and a broader push to rebuild the domestic nuclear supply chain. I see this as a symbolic and practical pivot, signaling that legacy nuclear infrastructure is no longer just a cleanup liability but a potential asset in meeting rising energy and security demands.
The move fits into a wider pattern, from revived commercial reactors to new research missions at former weapons sites, that is redefining what “retirement” means for nuclear plants. Instead of tearing everything down, federal agencies and private partners are increasingly asking which pieces of the Cold War complex can be safely modernized and reused. That question now sits at the heart of the 190,000 sq ft restart in Washington state.
The 190,000-square-foot FMEF gets a new mission
The facility at the center of this shift is the Fuel and Materials Examination Facility, or FMEF, a 190,000-square-foot building on the Hanford Site in Washington state. The FMEF was originally designed to support the Liquid Fast Breeder Reactor Program, part of a Cold War push to develop reactors that could generate more fissile material than they consumed, but it never fulfilled that role and has sat in a dormant surveillance and maintenance status for about 30 years. The Department of Energy is now assigning it a new purpose, positioning the structure as a hub for advanced nuclear fuel work rather than a relic awaiting demolition.
Technical descriptions of FMEF emphasize its heavy shielding, hot cells, and remote handling systems, all originally tailored to examine irradiated fuel from the Liquid Fast Breeder Reactor Program. Those same features now make it attractive for handling modern high burnup fuels and materials for advanced reactors that require secure, high integrity environments. By reusing a structure that was completed but never fully utilized, federal managers are trying to shorten the timeline and lower the cost of building out a domestic fuel ecosystem that can support both commercial power and national security needs.
From dormancy to fuel supply chain anchor
The restart is not happening in isolation. The Department of Energy has entered into a partnership with private firm General Matter to turn the FMEF into a production and testing center for advanced nuclear fuel, a collaboration described as holding “great promise” for rebuilding the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain and unlocking nuclear energy critical to long term decarbonization. That assessment comes from officials overseeing the Hanford Field Office, who see the partnership as a way to turn a maintenance cost into an engine of industrial capability. In practical terms, that means using the building’s hot cells and support systems to fabricate, examine, and qualify fuels that can power advanced reactors the private sector wants to deploy in the 2030s.
Technical background material notes that The FMEF was completed in 1984 and has been in dormant surveillance and maintenance status since 1993, which means the core structure is intact but many systems will need upgrades to meet current safety and performance standards. I see the decision to invest in those upgrades as a bet that fuel supply will be a bottleneck for the next wave of nuclear projects, from small modular reactors to microreactors for remote sites. Rather than rely on foreign enrichment and fabrication, federal planners want a domestic backbone that can support both civilian utilities and defense related applications.
Part of a broader push to revive legacy nuclear assets
The FMEF’s new mission fits into a broader pattern of giving legacy nuclear sites a “second life” instead of simply tearing them down. Federal cleanup managers have highlighted how repurposing existing structures can complement ongoing risk reduction work near the Columbia River, where RICHLAND, Wash based Workers at the Hanford Site have demolished older fuel removal facilities that no longer serve a strategic purpose. In contrast, the FMEF’s robust construction and specialized equipment make it a candidate for reuse, illustrating a more selective approach to what gets demolished and what gets modernized.
Policy statements on legacy nuclear sites stress that “this partnership holds great promise” for both cleanup and new missions, a phrase that has been used to describe how Hanford’s infrastructure can support advanced nuclear work while still honoring environmental obligations. That framing appears in separate references to legacy sites across the nuclear complex, suggesting that the FMEF is a template rather than an exception. I read that as a sign that the government is trying to balance the political imperative of visible cleanup with the strategic need to preserve high value nuclear infrastructure.
Commercial restarts: from Pennsylvania to Three Mile Island
While the FMEF is a research and fuel facility, the same logic of reuse is reshaping the commercial power sector. In Pennsylvania, the Department of Energy has closed a major loan to support Constellation’s restart of a nuclear power plant, with officials arguing that Constellation‘s restart of a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania will provide affordable, reliable, and secure energy to American communities and restore domestic manufacturing industries. That framing casts nuclear not just as a climate tool but as an industrial policy lever, tying baseload power to factory jobs and supply chain resilience.
Further east, the owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island plant has been moving to bring part of that site back online by 2027, ordering a main transformer, fuel, and restoring water systems as part of a restart plan. Reporting on the project notes that the company has already ordered several key items for the restart, a sign that this is more than a trial balloon. I see these moves as part of the same trend that is reviving the FMEF: it is often faster and cheaper to modernize an existing nuclear asset than to build a brand new plant from scratch.
AI, advanced fuels, and the next nuclear wave
Technology is making these revivals more plausible. At The Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, operators and engineers have been using artificial intelligence tools to analyze sensor data, predict equipment failures, and optimize maintenance schedules as they work to bring the plant out of retirement. Coverage of that effort notes that AI is helping extend the life of reactors that were once written off, with By Chris Bentley describing how digital tools are reshaping the economics of restarts.
In a related report, WBUR | By Chris Bentley, Published December 9, 2025 at 11:58 AM EST, Listen • 10:51, experts highlighted that AI can sift through “58” years of operational data in “51” seconds to flag anomalies that human crews might miss, a capability that becomes even more valuable in complex facilities like the FMEF. That same piece on AI tools underscores how digital modernization can complement physical upgrades, making it easier to justify investments in older infrastructure that still has structural value.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
