Centrus Energy has started manufacturing centrifuges in Tennessee for the company’s advanced uranium enrichment plant at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio.
New enrichment capacity is expected to come online in 2029, according to Centrus’ Dec. 19 press release. The centrifuges are being made at the company’s manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The Bethesda, Md. based uranium enrichment broker said this move supports its commercial enrichment efforts for low-enriched uranium (LEU) and is a part of the company’s planned multi-billion-dollar uranium enrichment expansion.
“We are excited to announce the official commencement of our industrial-scale centrifuge manufacturing build for commercial LEU enrichment,” Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler said in the release.
Centrus plans to use its expansion to meet its growing backlog of $2.3 billion in contingent LEU sales to U.S. and international customer contracts, according to the release. It also plans to target future commercial-scale production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU).
Centrus began doing HALEU enrichment at the DOE Portsmouth Site about two years ago.
Centrus announced plans to expand its Piketon facility in late September. Centrus said the expansion will be supported by public and private funding. Centrus has raised over $1 billion in private capital over the past year. The expansion should bring thousands of jobs in Ohio and Tennessee, Centrus said.
According to the release, Centrus is a finalist for task order awards from DOE for both LEU and HALEU production, which could be $900 million per task order.
Along with DOE investment, in August, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power and POSCO International partnered up with Centrus to explore possible investment in new enrichment in Ohio.