Centrus Energy said Monday it has signed a $16 million contract to continue for another year its research and development of advanced gas centrifuge uranium enrichment technology at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
The contract with lab management and operations prime UT-Battelle LLC runs through Sept. 30, 2018. The agreement enables Centrus to test enhancements to the AC100 centrifuge at Oak Ridge. Centrus has worked with ORNL since 2014 to enhance the AC100 technology.
There was no word Monday on what will happen after September 2018. The work occurs at the K-1600 facility in the East Tennessee Technology Park and at Centrus’ Technology and Manufacturing Center at Oak Ridge.
Contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) is cleaning up the ETTP site under contract with the Energy Department. Its contract expires in 2020, with 2,200 acres of land at the former uranium enrichment complex due to be turned over for reuse.
Centrus’ American Centrifuge technology is intended to provide an advanced means of uranium enrichment for commercial and national security purposes. It would replace older technology no longer used in the United States, which currently lacks an industrial-scale enrichment capability.
Centrus shut down an American Centrifuge demonstration project at Piketon, Ohio, in 2016, after DOE cut off funding the year before.
Centrus has said that it is seeking to advance the American Centrifuge technology so that it can be deployed whenever needed by DOE.
UT-Battelle is a 50-50 limited partnership between the University of Tennessee and Battelle Memorial Institute.
