Centrus Energy

  • Rendering of Antares Nuclear’s kilowatt-class microreactor system, shown on the NRC’s Antares pre-application activities page. Courtesy: Antares Nuclear/NRC
    Nuclear

    Antares Mark-0 Becomes First Advanced Nuclear Reactor to Achieve Criticality Under DOE Pilot Program

    Antares Nuclear Inc.’s Mark-0—a sodium heat-pipe-cooled microreactor fueled by high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel compacts—has achieved zero-power criticality at Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) Reactor and Critical Experiment (RACE) facility, becoming the first advanced reactor to reach that milestone under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Reactor Pilot Program. The development, announced on June […]

  • Urenco USA's National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico—America’s sole commercial enrichment facility—traces its U.S. roots to the 1992 Treaty of Washington, which authorized the deployment of Urenco centrifuge technology on American soil. Although the project was originally planned for Louisiana—and its licensed operator remains Louisiana Energy Services—the facility was built in southeastern New Mexico after the state offered local support. Construction began in 2006, and the facility received the NRC's first combined construction and operating license for a nuclear project in 2010—the same year it began producing enriched uranium. It completed its first customer delivery in March 2012. Since then, Urenco says it has invested about $5 billion in the facility, which now operates 64 cascades producing approximately 4.3 million SWU per year—roughly one-third of current U.S. demand. The illustration above depicts a new enrichment plant Urenco USA plans to build at the same site to add 2.1 million SWU of capacity. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2029, with initial LEU production starting in 2032 and full capacity online by 2036. Courtesy: Urenco USA
    Power

    America’s Only Commercial Uranium Enricher Is Privately Building a New Plant Amid a Widening Nuclear Fuel Supply Gap

    Urenco USA, operator of the only U.S. commercial-scale uranium enrichment facility, will expand low-enriched uranium (LEU) capacity at its National Enrichment Facility (NEF) in Eunice, New Mexico, by nearly 50% through a privately funded, multibillion-dollar investment that includes construction of a new enrichment plant. The project will add 2.1 million separative work units (SWU) of […]

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    Partner Content

    160 Days to Fission: Nuclear Power’s Sprint to Execution

    Sponsored by:
    TerraPower

    For the first time in decades, a wave of nuclear projects across the U.S. is advancing in parallel—from test reactors to early construction. POWER examines how first movers are navigating execution risk, supply chain constraints, and the race to achieve criticality by 2026. For the first time since the 1970s, multiple nuclear projects are under […]

  • Uranium yellowcake is used in the preparation of uranium fuel that is used in nuclear reactors. Source: DOE
    Legal & Regulatory

    DOE Issues $2.7B Orders to Scale Domestic Nuclear LEU and HALEU Enrichment

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued its first production-scale task orders under a $2.7-billion uranium enrichment program launched in 2024, awarding $900 million each to Centrus Energy Corp., General Matter, and Orano Federal Services to expand domestic capacity for conventional low-enriched uranium (LEU) and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) over the next decade. The […]

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    Nuclear

    Centrus Completes 900-kg HALEU Delivery to DOE in U.S. Nuclear Fuel Enrichment Milestone

    Centrus Energy has produced and delivered 900 kilograms (kg) of High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), completing Phase II of its pioneering enrichment contract with the agency. The shipment marks the first significant domestic production of HALEU—a specialized fuel required for many advanced reactors now under development—and stands as a […]

  • side-view-of-HALEU-cascade-3180-1536x1024
    Power

    Centrus Gets NRC Green Light to Introduce Uranium Into HALEU Nuclear Enrichment Cascade

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has allowed Centrus Energy—a firm contracted by the  U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to demonstrate high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) production with domestic technology—to introduce uranium hexafluoride (UF6) into its uranium enrichment centrifuge cascade in Piketon, Ohio. The development marks yet another critical milestone for Bethesda, Maryland–headquartered company in its efforts […]