Centrus Energy Corp. has started work on a next-generation uranium enrichment cascade that could give the company a leg up in the competition to build the next domestic enrichment facility for national defense, according to a document published Wednesday by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In a June 27 letter to the federal regulator, the Bethesda, Md., nuclear fuel supplier said it started building the 16-machine cascade on June 1 at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio.
Centrus is working under a letter contract — a temporary agreement that usually provides a limited amount of funding — awarded by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy on May 31, according to the letter to John Lubinski, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, from Larry Cutlip, Centrus senior vice president for field operations.
In the letter, Centrus said it wants to withdraw its 2018 request to terminate the company’s materials license for the now-canceled American Centrifuge Lead Cascade Facility. The Barack Obama administration killed that project in 2015, and Centrus is building its new cascade in the same facility.
In January, DOE’s Nuclear Energy Oak Ridge Site Office announced it would give Centrus subsidiary American Centrifuge Operating LLC a $115-million sole-source contract to build a brand-new series of its AC-100M centrifuges at Portsmouth.
The contract features a two-year base and a one-year option. The machines must by October 2020 produce an unspecified quantity of 19.75-percent enriched uranium fuel known as high-assay low-enriched uranium. The Energy Department wants the material for a pilot program for future advanced reactors. However, the new Centrus cascade will be made from all U.S.-made components, meaning it could be suitable for refining uranium needed for national defense.
For example, the National Nuclear Security Administration requires low-enriched uranium to create tritium in commercial nuclear power plants. The agency cannot use spot-market uranium because it carries peaceful-use restrictions under international convention. Enrichment facilities that use non-U.S. parts also carry peaceful-use restrictions.
The NNSA will in 2038 require a new source of low-enriched uranium in order to create tritium needed to maintain the explosive power of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. As part of an analysis of alternatives slated to wrap up in December, the agency is considering using Centrus AC-100 series technology for this purpose.
