Centrus Energy Corp. this month finished building all 16 of the AC100M gas centrifuges it plans to use to produce high-energy reactor fuel for the Department of Energy at the Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio, under a $115 million DOE contract from 2019.
That’s according to a press release from the Bethesda, Md.-based company, which only the week before reported a profitable 2020 fourth quarter and full year.
Centrus, these days a fuel broker and technology development company, reported net income of $54.4 million for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2020 compared with a net loss of $16.5 million for 2019. Fourth quarter net income was $16.4 million up from a net loss of $2.8 million for the final three months of 2019.
Total revenue for 2020 was $247.2 million compared to $209.7 million in 2019. The quarterly revenue for Centrus was $92.9 million, which beat the $55.7 million during the fourth quarter of 2019.
“Despite the unprecedented health crisis posed by COVID-19, with a large portion of our stall shifting to telework, Centrus has had a great year that saw us return to profitability, improve our balance sheet and deliver value to stockholders with a higher share prices,” Centrus President and CEO Daniel Poneman said the press release.
One big milestone in 2020 year was getting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to accept for formal review the Centrus license amendment to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU),” at Portsmouth Poneman said. The company expects to begin demonstrating production of HALEU by early 2022, the chief executive said.
Under its $115-million, 80-20 cost share deal with DOE, which had two years of firm funding and a one-year option, Centrus was to start operating the new cascade by March 1, 2022, provide a HALEU sample to DOE by March 15, 2022 and produce at least 200 kilograms of HALEU by June 1, 2022.
The Department of Energy plans to use Centrus because it is a U.S. company with necessary expertise to make a small amount of the 19.75% enriched uranium product to be used in research and development of advanced nuclear energy and possibly national security purposes. Some suppliers for the planned 16-machine cascade had issues because of COVID-19 last year.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is also considering whether to use Centrus’ AC100 technology as the cornerstone of the next domestic enrichment facility capable of producing unencumbered uranium for nuclear weapons work. The NNSA needs a supply of uranium usable in the weapons program by the early 2040s. Centrus is competing against a smaller technology developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. NNSA planned to pick from among the two by January, but the agency had yet to announce a choice at deadline Friday.
