Friday, 27 June 2025
To date, Centrus has produced and delivered over 920 kg of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) under the contract. The company said it will now begin enrichment production under Phase III, for which it has earlier this month secured a contract extension for an additional year of production to 30 June 2026. The third phase also includes options for up to a further eight years of additional production: these are at the Department’s sole discretion, and subject to the availability of appropriations.
HALEU fuel enriched to between 5% and 20% of the fissile uranium-235 isotope will be needed to fuel many of the advanced reactor designs that are under development, but there is currently no commercial source of the material in the USA, and the Department of Energy has been actively supporting the development of a domestic US supply chain. In 2019, it awarded Centrus a contract to licence and construct a cascade of advanced centrifuges to demonstrate HALEU production at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, and in 2022 selected the company through a competitive process for the three-phase follow-on contract to bring the cascade into production and to deliver HALEU for the DOE’s use.
The material produced at Piketon will be used as part of the Department of Energy’s HALEU allocation process to support the fuel qualification and testing of advanced reactor designs.
Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Mike Goff said the HALEU demonstration project is critical to the department’s efforts to ensure there is enough HALEU material to meet the near-term needs of its industry partners as they work to bring advanced reactors into operation. “It’s also an important step in rebuilding the nation’s nuclear fuel supply chain as directed by President Trump’s recent executive orders to expand America’s Dominance agenda,” he added.
“Achievement of this milestone further demonstrates the ability of our technology to deliver results for our customers and for the nation,” said Centrus Energy President and CEO Amir Vexler. “As the only source of HALEU enrichment in the Western world, our product is urgently needed to power the next generation of reactors,” he said, adding that the company remains focused “on the ultimate goal of expanding our capacity in Ohio so that we can meet the full range of America’s commercial and national security requirements for HALEU as well as low-enriched uranium for the existing reactor fleet.”
