Centrus Energy Corp and X-Energy have signed an agreement under which Centrus will provide enrichment services for both low-enriched uranium and high-assay low-enriched uranium to fuel X-Energy's Xe-100 small modular reactors, the companies announced. The material will be produced at Centrus's American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, and supplied to X-Energy's fuel subsidiary TRISO-X for fabrication at its Oak Ridge, Tennessee campus. X-Energy will make prepayments to Centrus under a phased approach designed to scale HALEU production alongside the advancement of X-Energy's commercial reactor pipeline.

The deal builds on years of federal backing for domestic HALEU capacity. The US Department of Energy awarded Centrus a contract in 2019 to license and construct an advanced centrifuge cascade demonstrating HALEU production at Piketon, then selected the company in 2022 through a competitive process for a three-phase follow-on contract to bring the cascade into production for DOE's own use. Centrus has since announced a major expansion of the plant expected to create 1,000 construction jobs and 300 new operating jobs in Ohio, on top of the 150 jobs retained from the original site. Centrus says prepayment arrangements paired with government funding help resolve a persistent supply chain problem: reactor developers need assurance of future fuel before committing to projects, while fuel producers want confirmed demand before expanding capacity. The company reports a $3 billion contingent LEU and HALEU order backlog, with $2.4 billion of that total already finalized under contract, as the domestic fuel supply chain builds toward supporting a new generation of advanced reactors.

Source: World Nuclear News - https://world-nuclear-news.org/articles/x-energy-and-centrus-sign-haleu-supply-agreement