Centrus Energy Corp. marked the completion and shipment of the first centrifuge built for the expansion of its uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, at an October 29 event at its Technology and Manufacturing Center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Government officials attended the press event.
CEO Amir Vexler described the shipment as linking American manufacturing in Tennessee with American enrichment in Ohio. Patrick Brown, senior vice president of field operations, said the unit is the first of thousands planned and that 11,519 more remain to be built. Centrus intends to expand capacity for low-enriched uranium for the existing reactor fleet, high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for advanced reactors, and national security needs.
Oak Ridge is the only U.S. site building gas centrifuges for commercial enrichment, which would make its output unobligated, meaning it is produced without foreign equipment or material. The report contrasts this with the Urenco USA plant in Eunice, New Mexico, which does not produce unobligated uranium. A GAO report issued in August found that the National Nuclear Security Administration's current unobligated uranium supply should last into the 2040s.
Centrus announced in January that it would invest more than $560 million to expand Oak Ridge manufacturing, and it holds a $900 million Department of Energy award to produce HALEU at the American Centrifuge Plant in Ohio. New cascades will use centrifuges with only U.S.-made parts, including casings sourced partly through its Westerman Holdings acquisition, and are expected online in 2029. BWX Technologies began making centrifuges in Oak Ridge in January 2026 but does not plan to sell into the commercial market.
Source: Nuclear Newswire (American Nuclear Society) -- https://www.ans.org/news/2026-11-02/article-8548/centrus-sends-first-new-centrifuge-built-at-oak-ridge-to-piketon-plant/