Centrus Energy begins centrifuge shipments to Ohio ahead of 2029 expansion
The first new machine leaves Tennessee for final assembly in Ohio, ahead of a year-end manufacturing target.
Ines Halvorsen
On Oct. 29, the first new uranium-enrichment centrifuge began shipping from Tennessee to Ohio, Centrus Energy Corp. NYSELEU said, keeping its 2029 target for the first added production capacity.
The shipment follows a US$560 million investment announced in January 2026 to expand and modernize Centrus's Oak Ridge manufacturing centre, according to Thursday's release. The receiving operation is Centrus's own Ohio enrichment site, and the announcement carries no new customer contract or supply term.
The manufacturing milestone puts equipment into transit ahead of the company's previously announced year-end target. It does not establish that the machine has been installed or begun enriching uranium in Ohio.
Centrus shares closed at US$98.44 in New York at 4 p.m. EDT on Oct. 26, according to NYSELEU. That quote predates the shipment announcement and provides no measure of the market's response.
Centrus supplies nuclear fuel and services to utilities and is expanding production of both conventional low-enriched uranium and high-assay, low-enriched uranium, known as HALEU. The latter is intended for next-generation reactors, while the expansion also includes enrichment for national security needs.
Manufacturing restarted at Oak Ridge in December 2025. The company says the January investment is intended to turn the site into a high-rate plant capable of supporting production of thousands of advanced centrifuges.
"This milestone marks the next phase of the project where completed centrifuges manufactured in Tennessee will be shipped to Ohio for final assembly, with the manufacturing rate growing over time," Centrus said.
Thursday's release gives no installation date for the first machine or annual enrichment output for the initial 2029 capacity. It describes a ramp in manufacturing, rather than a completed enrichment expansion.
Existing Licence Covers The Ohio Plant
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing summary identifies American Centrifuge Operating, a wholly owned indirect Centrus subsidiary, as the holder of active licence SNM-2011. The regulator says that commercial plant licence was issued in 2007 for a 30-year period.
Centrus's existing Ohio centrifuge cascade has produced HALEU since late 2023, according to Thursday's announcement. That operating equipment is separate from the newly manufactured machines now entering the expansion's assembly pipeline.
The company says it has contracted domestic suppliers and ordered tens of thousands of parts from American manufacturers. It says that domestic supply chain allows its technology to serve both commercial and national security demand.
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A separate U.S. enrichment expansion is already adding production in New Mexico. Urenco USA announced on Oct. 8 that its sixth new cascade had started production at the National Enrichment Facility, with six installed cascades able to produce more than 500,000 separative work units annually.
Urenco expects to install its seventh cascade later in 2026 and the final cascade in that expansion in spring 2027.
Centrus's next scheduled financial update is its third-quarter report after market close on Nov. 4, followed by a shareholder call at 8:30 a.m. EST on Nov. 5. Its first added Ohio enrichment capacity remains expected online in 2029.
