Market sizing, financing deals, offtake contracts and investment analysis across the HALEU value chain
AI-driven nuclear demand is colliding with a fuel supply chain that cannot scale quickly, as TerraPower's HALEU-driven delay showed. Tech giants are signing power deals, but fuel procurement and enrichment capacity remain the real constraints.
Centrus' Piketon expansion will add cascades for HALEU, LEU feed and national-security enrichment, backed by a DOE task order worth up to $1.07 billion and first capacity targeted for 2029.
TerraPower's 2022 decision to delay its Wyoming sodium-cooled reactor by at least two years was driven by HALEU availability, not funding or regulation — a structural supply gap that new enrichment capacity will not close before 2029.
A new market report values the global HALEU market at $850 million in 2025 and projects 17% annual growth to $4.09 billion by 2035, driven by advanced reactors and Western supply security.
A new market forecast puts global uranium enrichment at $8.83 billion in 2026 and $17.70 billion by 2036, a 7.2% CAGR driven by Western capacity expansion, HALEU demand and supply-chain reshoring.
A new Research and Markets study projects the global HALEU fuel market will grow from $0.45 billion in 2025 to $9.96 billion by 2036, with enrichment leading today's value chain and fuel fabrication posting the fastest growth.
Centrus Energy agreed on October 19, 2026 to acquire Westerman Holdings for approximately $116 million, vertically integrating a key centrifuge casing supplier into its multibillion-dollar LEU and HALEU enrichment expansion.
South Africa's Necsa and Quantum Leap Energy have signed a binding heads of agreement to develop a HALEU test bench and commercial production facility at Pelindaba, with QLE holding about 80% of the joint venture and TerraPower supply deals already providing offtake.
A $900 million DOE contract, more than $1.2 billion in convertible notes and a fresh $99.8 million equity raise are financing Centrus's plan to produce at least 12 tonnes of HALEU per year at Piketon.
TerraPower has offtake agreements covering future QLE/Necsa output, while Centrus has signed HALEU supply deals with Oklo, X-energy, Radiant and Antares — a sign that contracted demand is running years ahead of production.
Centrus Energy has signed multi-year HALEU supply agreements with Antares Nuclear, Radiant and X-energy, adding customer prepayments that help fund its domestic enrichment build-out.
The IAEA identifies HALEU enrichment and advanced-fuel fabrication as major fuel cycle bottlenecks, warning that commercial-scale Western production capacity remains virtually non-existent.