Centrus Energy and the Department of Energy have signed the contract for the $900 million DOE award to bolster the domestic uranium enrichment production that was announced in January.
American Centrifuge Operating, a Centrus company, was one of the three companies awarded $900 million by DOE, totaling $2.7 billion given out in task orders. Centrus said in a Wednesday press release that this contract would assist in large-scale production capacity for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) as a part of the company’s multi-billion-dollar expansion.
According to the release, the new, fixed-price HALEU enrichment contract with DOE includes options, at DOE’s discretion, for up to $170 million in HALEU purchases for departmental missions. That would amount to $1.07 billion if all options are exercised.
Centrus’ expansion at its uranium enrichment plant at DOE’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, announced in September 2025, will increase both low-enriched uranium (LEU) and HALEU capacity. The planned expansion will be funded by both public and private money, Centrus said.
The company has already begun manufacturing new centrifuges for its Piketon uranium enrichment plant at its Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based manufacturing facility, which also has its own planned expansion. Additionally, Centrus has signed construction-based contracts with companies such as Fluor and Geiger Brothers to work on the Pikton expansion.
Centrus expects to have its new capacity operational by 2029. Until then, Centrus said it will privately operate the existing HALEU cascade on a commercial basis to start supplying near-term orders.
“Today’s announcement marks another milestone in our expansion, as we pivot from a technology demonstration contract to the new, larger contract aimed at commercial scale production,” said Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler.
“The government’s investment from this contract will be matched several times over with billions of dollars in capital, including other non-dilutive, non-debt funding as well as customer contracts to restore America’s ability to enrich uranium at a large scale,” Vexler finished.
In 2019, Centrus won a contract to build a cascade of advanced centrifuges in Piketon to validate HALEU production domestically. That demonstration contract was altered and extended in 2022 to allow for a longer period of HALEU production and again extended through June 30, 2026.
Though Centrus and DOE signed a three-month, $15 million extension for HALEU storage, the company said it has completed all HALEU production of HALEU UF6 that was mandatory under the existing demonstration contract, with the production of the final 900 kilograms of HALEU UF6 completed in mid-June.
Over 1,900 kilograms of HALEU UF6 were produced over the duration of the contract, according to the release.