Centrus Ships First Newly Built Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge in the U.S.

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 29, U.S. nuclear fuel supplier Centrus Energy announced that its centrifuge manufacturing plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has completed its first newly built uranium enrichment centrifuge and begun shipping the equipment to its uranium enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. The equipment will be assembled on site to form centrifuge cascade systems, supporting the company's expansion of uranium enrichment capacity. Centrus expects the new enrichment capacity to be operational in 2029.

Uranium enrichment centrifuges separate isotopes by spinning uranium hexafluoride gas at high speed, exploiting the mass difference between uranium-235 and uranium-238 to increase the concentration of uranium-235. Multiple centrifuges are connected to form a cascade system, gradually reaching the required enrichment level. The equipment shipped by Centrus from Oak Ridge will be used for the expansion of the existing facility in Ohio. The low-enriched uranium (LEU) produced in the future can be used for existing commercial nuclear power units, while high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) will serve the fuel needs of advanced reactors and also support national security-related applications.

This shipment marks important progress in Centrus's expansion of domestic centrifuge manufacturing and uranium enrichment capacity in the United States. The company resumed centrifuge manufacturing activities at the Oak Ridge plant in December 2025 and announced in January 2026 an investment of more than $560 million to expand and modernize the manufacturing center, with plans to upgrade it into a high-volume manufacturing plant to support the production of thousands of advanced centrifuges. The expansion plan also includes the creation of nearly 430 jobs. Centrus previously stated that the new centrifuges will be gradually shipped to Ohio for assembly, and that manufacturing speed will increase as production lines are expanded.

Centrus's existing centrifuge cascade in Ohio has been producing high-assay low-enriched uranium since late 2023, but some equipment components were manufactured in 2019 or earlier. The shipment of the new equipment from the manufacturing plant means the expansion project has entered the equipment delivery and subsequent assembly phase. The company is also strengthening supply chain assurance for centrifuge equipment manufacturing by expanding its network of domestic U.S. component suppliers.

Centrus stated that the Oak Ridge plant is the only manufacturing facility in the United States with mature advanced centrifuge technology. The shipment of this first unit does not mean that the new enrichment capacity in Ohio is already operational; equipment delivery, cascade assembly, and related commissioning work remain to be completed. The company has given 2029 as the operational date for the new capacity and has not yet disclosed the specific annual uranium enrichment output corresponding to this expansion.