Centrus Energy Corp., a Bethesda, Maryland-based nuclear fuel supplier, signed a new agreement with X-energy to provide low-enriched uranium and high-assay low-enriched uranium for X-energy's planned Xe-100 small modular reactors, the companies announced Thursday. The contract calls for Centrus to produce the material at its American Centrifuge Plant in Pike County, Ohio, and includes prepayments from X-energy meant to help fund the buildout of domestic enrichment capacity.
The deal adds to a contracted backlog for Centrus that now totals roughly $3 billion in low-enriched and high-assay uranium supply, with about $2.4 billion of that already finalized. It follows a separate $900 million enrichment award the company secured earlier this year from the U.S. Department of Energy, part of a broader federal push to rebuild domestic uranium enrichment capacity after decades of reliance on foreign suppliers.
Centrus executives described the prepayment structure as a way to secure funding without taking on new debt or issuing additional equity, a financing approach the company has leaned on as it expands operations in Ohio and at a second site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Company leadership said the agreement strengthens the case for Centrus as a reliable domestic supplier as demand grows from developers of advanced small reactors.
X-energy, which is developing the Xe-100 reactor design along with TRISO-X fuel technology, has separately built commercial relationships with companies including Amazon and Dow, reflecting rising corporate interest in nuclear power as a source of steady, carbon-free electricity for data centers and industrial operations.
The agreement is the latest sign that private capital is increasingly willing to fund the buildout of America's uranium enrichment industry ahead of anticipated demand from a new generation of reactors.
Source: StockTitan - https://www.stocktitan.net/news/LEU/centrus-energy-signs-leu-and-haleu-supply-agreement-with-x-4k90k6m3kkni.html