Centrus to restart centrifuge manufacturing, expand capacity

Thursday, 21 November 2024

Such a large-scale expansion would require a multi-billion dollar public and private investment, the company said. It has recently secured more than USD2 billion in contingent purchase commitments from customers to support future production of low-enriched uranium (LEU), as well as two awards from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to support the enrichment and deconversion of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) - uranium enriched to contain between 5% and 20% uranium-235 that will be used by many advanced reactors.

Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler said this latest investment "will jump-start what we hope will be a multi-billion dollar public and private commitment to re-establishing America's uranium enrichment capacity at scale while reducing our dependence on foreign nations".

"The all-American solution we are offering represents the best path forward to ensure a reliable fuel supply for today's reactors, support the deployment of next generation reactors, and meet America's enduring national security needs for enriched uranium. Most importantly, it puts us in position to execute an expansion quickly," he said.

"We have always said that restoring US enrichment capacity at scale requires a public-private partnership, including a robust federal investment alongside customer offtake commitments and private capital. This additional investment by Centrus reflects our continued willingness to step up to the plate in such a partnership."

Centrus's American Centrifuge technology is exclusively manufactured at its Technology and Manufacturing Center in Oak Ridge, supported by a domestic supply chain of 14 major suppliers and dozens of smaller suppliers.

For some years the USA has relied on imported material rather than domestic uranium enrichment capacity: currently, the only operating commercial uranium enrichment capacity in the USA is the Urenco USA (UUSA) plant at Eunice in New Mexico, which uses a European centrifuge design that is exclusively manufactured in the Netherlands and is currently being expanded. French company Orano is also looking to build a new centrifuge uranium enrichment facility, for which it has selected a preferred site in Oak Ridge.

But the US administration has been taking steps to lessen US reliance on overseas suppliers, particularly Russia, on which the USA had been relying for a sizeable portion of its enriched uranium requirements: 27% of the uranium enrichment services purchased by US nuclear plant operators came from Russia, more than any other foreign supplier.

A prohibition on Russian LEU imports has been in place since August. Centrus had obtained a waiver allowing it to import low-enriched uranium from Russia for delivery to US customers in 2024 and 2025, but the Russian government has now placed its own ban on exports of LEU to the USA. Russian government-owned company Tenex - Centrus's largest supplier of LEU for delivery to its US and international customers - has said it will seek the necessary export licences to meet its obligations, but Centrus said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that its ability to meet its own delivery obligations will be affected if Tenex cannot obtain the licences.

Centrus is competing for more than USD3.4 billion of DOE funding to jumpstart domestic nuclear fuel production. As well as the recent award of USD2 million for domestic HALEU production, the company, via its American Centrifuge Operating subsidiary, is one of several selected under a separate solicitation aimed at HALEU deconversion. A third solicitation, aimed at US production of LEU for existing reactors, has not yet been awarded.