Washington aiming to end Russia’s monopoly on production
The US Department of Energy has extended Centrus Energy’s contract to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium (Haleu) to 30 June 2026 with additional options for continued production for up to eight additional years.
In 2019, the DOE awarded Bethesda, Maryland-based Centrus a contract licence and construct a cascade of advanced centrifuges to demonstrate Haleu production at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.
In 2022, Centrus won a three-phase follow-on contract to bring the cascade into production and deliver Haleu for the DOE’s use.
Centrus completed Phase I of the contract in late 2023 by launching enrichment operations and demonstrating first-of-a-kind Haleu production with the delivery of 20 kg of Haleu.
Phase II of the contract called for Centrus to produce an additional 900 kg of Haleu by 30 June. Phase III included three optional extension periods of three years each, for up to nine additional production years.
Centrus president and chief executive officer Amir Vexler said the company is delivering meaningful quantities of Haleu to catalyse a new generation of reactors, while laying the groundwork to establish a large-scale, US-owned uranium enrichment capability to meet the US’s commercial and national security requirements.
The US government has been concerned for several years that Russia has a monopoly on Haleu manufacturing. Washington has taken steps to incentivise the development of domestic production.
In October 2024, four companies – Centrus Energy, Urenco USA, Orano USA and General Matter – were awarded contracts to produce Haleu in the US.
Deliveries from Russia are set to end in 2028 under a 2024 ban.
Haleu is a type of nuclear fuel that is enriched to a higher level than the uranium used in most current reactors, but still below the level considered highly enriched.
This higher enrichment level allows for more efficient and potentially smaller reactor designs, particularly in advanced reactor technologies like small modular reactors.
In April the DOE announced conditional commitments to supply Halue to five domestic nuclear developers to meet their short-term fuel needs.
