Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., said Monday it is now licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to enrich uranium to about 20% U-235 by weight in Piketon, Ohio — and that company plans a demonstration by early next year.
Centrus is under contract to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for the Department of Energy under a three-year, 80-20 cost-share contract. DOE is on the hook for no more than $115 million. Work started under a letter contract awarded May 31, 2019. DOE definitized the deal on October 1, 2019. There agreement has a two-year base and a one-year option.
The HALEU, to be produced in a 16-machine AC100 cascade at DOE’s Portsmouth Site, could be used by the agency to fuel government-led, advanced reactor demonstrations. COVID-19 and vendor problems added between $2 million and $3 million to the cost of Centrus’ HALEU demo in 2021, DOE has said.
“State COVID related work restrictions initially led to unanticipated costs,” DOE’s 2022 budget request reads. “In addition, suppliers have been unable to deliver equipment and materials causing alternative suppliers to be sought resulting in additional hours for contract activities, redesign, and additional nuclear criticality safety analyses. Additional activities included onsite health screenings and thorough industrial hygiene measures.”
Centrus’ contract calls for the company to obtain an NRC license to produce HALEU by March 1, 2022, according to a copy of the deal with DOE, published March 27, 2020 as an exhibit to Centrus’ annual 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to the NRC’s final environmental assessment for Centrus’ proposed license amendment, the company sought permission to enrich uranium to as much as 25% U-235 by weight “to factor in small process fluctuations.”
Under its contract with DOE, Centrus is supposed to start operating the new demonstration cascade by March 1, 2022 and provide a HALEU sample to DOE by March 15, 2022. Under the contract’s one-year option, Centrus would have to produce at least 200 kilograms of HALEU for the agency by June 1, 2022.
The company finished building all 16 AC100 machines in March 2021, it said in its earnings report for 2020.
The demonstration cascade will not produce uranium suitable for national defense, Centrus has said. However, the cascade could be altered to include only U.S.-origin parts, or the cascade’s design could be used to produce all domestic machines suitable for future national defense work. DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration is considering Centrus’ AC100 technology for defense-uranium enrichment in the second half of the century.
There has been renewed curiosity in Congress this year about whether the NNSA might be able to procure unencumbered defense uranium from sources other than a domestic enricher.
