Bethesda, Md. uranium broker Centrus Energy has manufactured its first centrifuge and is shipping it to its uranium enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio, the company said Oct. 29.
The centrifuge was made at Centrus’ Oak Ridge, Tenn. facility. This centrifuge was completed as a part of the company’s multibillion dollar expansion of its uranium enrichment facility near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site.
The new centrifuge made in Oak Ridge will be grouped into cascades. Centrus expects the first new installed capacity at DOE’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio could be online by 2029.
According to Centrus’ press release, this action marks the next phase of its expansion project where centrifuges are manufactured in Oak Ridge, which is also expanding its capacities, and shipped to Piketon for final assembly. The announcement to invest $560 million to expand the manufacturing facility came in January, following a December 2025 decision to restart manufacturing low-enriched uranium centrifuges for the Piketon plant.
With the expanded Oak Ridge, the company has manufactured thousands of individual centrifuge pieces. At the same time, Centrus has “contracted a network of domestic suppliers and ordered tens of thousands of parts from American manufacturers to secure an unobligated supply chain that can service both commercial and national security demand,” according to the release.
The company recently acquired Westerman Holdings, a supplier of cascade casings, in a $116 million transaction as an effort to expand its own supply chain for these planned expansions.
“Completing the first new centrifuge for our expansion and standing up a one-of-a-kind supply chain are significant moments for our team and this country,” Amir Vexler, Centrus president and CEO, said. “These milestones demonstrate our ability to translate our investment into tangible progress and position us to re-establish this country’s rightful position in the global enrichment market.”
