A supply-chain milestone at Oak Ridge
Centrus Energy has shipped the first new centrifuge from its manufacturing plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for the multibillion-dollar expansion of uranium enrichment capacity at Piketon, Ohio. The shipment marks a visible step in the U.S. effort to rebuild a domestic HALEU supply chain after years of reliance on limited or foreign sources.
Centrus began the Piketon project under a Department of Energy contract initiated in 2019. It built a cascade of AC-100M advanced centrifuges to demonstrate HALEU production; the plant became operational in 2023 and continues to produce HALEU under its DOE contract. HALEU is uranium enriched to between 5% and 20% uranium-235 and is expected to fuel many advanced reactor designs now under development.
Expansion plans take shape
In September 2025 Centrus announced a major Piketon expansion that would add centrifuge cascades for HALEU, produce LEU feed material for those cascades, supply additional LEU to the commercial market and serve national security needs. In December 2025 the company restarted centrifuge manufacturing in Oak Ridge. In January 2026 it announced a USD560 million investment to modernise the Oak Ridge Technology and Manufacturing Center into a high-rate plant capable of supporting production of thousands of advanced centrifuges.
In June 2026 DOE selected Centrus for a USD900 million task order to expand Piketon to commercial-scale HALEU production. The award includes options worth up to USD170 million to produce and deliver HALEU to DOE, bringing the total potential value to USD1.07 billion. Centrus has also used funding from Tennessee's USD70 million Nuclear Energy Fund, administered by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
The first new centrifuges will be grouped into cascades at Piketon, with the first new enrichment capacity expected online in 2029. The expansion is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs and 300 operating jobs while retaining the 150 jobs at the plant when the project began.
Centrus says its technology is fully licensed, proven and de-risked, with more than four million machine-hours of operation. Its existing Ohio cascade includes components manufactured in 2019 and earlier and has reliably produced HALEU since late 2023. Oak Ridge is the only advanced centrifuge manufacturing plant in the United States. CEO Amir Vexler called the first centrifuge and the new supply chain significant milestones that translate investment into tangible progress.
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