In what would be a major milestone for a technology eyed as a possible cornerstone for nuclear-weapon sustainment in the latter half of this century, Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., said this week it will begin enriching energy-dense uranium fuel in October.
Centrus is in the prove-it phase of a Department of Energy contract, awarded in 2022 and worth up to $1 billion over 10 years, to operate a cascade of 16 AC100M centrifuges the company built in a leased building at Portsmouth under a separate DOE contract awarded in 2019.
AC100M is one of two centrifuge technologies that DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration had considered using for the next all-domestic, U.S. enrichment facility. Nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel for Navy warships must come solely from domestic ore refined in domestic machines.
The agency this summer said it wanted to launch a pilot program for a new domestic enrichment cascade, something the U.S. has lacked since 2013 when Centrus’ predecessor company, United States Enrichment Corp., shut down the last all-domestic enrichment facility.
Centrus’ latest cascade includes some parts made outside of the U.S., so for now, the company will focus solely on aiding DOE’s drive to produce high assay low-enriched uranium fuel, or HALEU, for a new generation of nuclear reactors the agency wants to help commercialize.
The company is doing that under a contract with DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, which calls for Centrus to operate the cascade it built at Portsmouth. The first phase of the operational contract’s two-year base period calls for Centrus to produce 20 kilograms of or HALEU, for DOE’s inspection by Dec. 31.
If the sample passes muster, Centrus would be on the hook to produce 900 kilograms of HALEU by December 2024 in the base period’s second phase.
Beyond the base, DOE holds a trio of three-year options that, if exercised, would require Centrus to produce 900 kilograms of HALEU annually.
HALEU is 19.75% uranium-235 by mass, just below the threshold of what is considered highly enriched uranium, under international conventions.
Centrus’ production license comes from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which gave the company approval to process HALEU at Portsmouth in June. The commission on Thursday hosted a public meeting Thursday in Piketon to discuss its oversight of Centrus’ cascade there.
