Centrus, X-energy sign enrichment contract as TRISO-X expands TX-1 campus

Centrus Energy Corp. will be providing X-energy with enrichment services for low-enriched uranium and high-assay, low-enriched uranium to support X-energy's planned deployments of Xe-100 small modular reactors and TRISO-X fuel, according to the terms of a new contract signed by the companies. The fuel will be produced at Centrus's American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. In turn, X-energy will provide Centrus with prepayments to help support expanding the capacity of Centrus's domestic commercial enrichment program.

Building out and derisking: Centrus has been pursuing an aggressive build-out of its commercial LEU and HALEU enrichment capacity in the United States and a strategy of obtaining derisked funding to strengthen its capital stack. That strategy includes prepayments in HALEU offtake agreements, such as the prepayments deal with X-energy, as well as a recent Department of Energy award of $900 million for HALEU enrichment at Piketon.

Centrus president and CEO Amir Vexler said that the contract with X-energy "is another significant agreement that validates Centrus as the go-to, derisked supplier of HALEU to the global market. Our work in Piketon and Oak Ridge is strengthening a U.S.-based nuclear fuel supply chain and is removing enrichment as a point of concern for the advanced reactor community."

For X-energy, the contract with Centrus adds to other commercial relationships that the company has been forming for its Xe-100 and TRISO-X deployment ambitions, including agreements with Dow Inc., Amazon, and Centrica.

TRISO-X campus: In another positive development for X-energy's SMR and fuel programs, the company's TRISO-X subsidiary has acquired about 70 acres of land next to its TX-1 commercial nuclear fuel campus in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to support ongoing construction and expansion there. With this expansion, the TRISO-X campus, located at the Horizon Center Industrial Park, is now more than 180 acres. The facility being constructed here is the first Category II fuel cycle facility to be built in the United States.

TRISO-X obtained a special nuclear material license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in February for HALEU fabrication at the TX-1 site, as well as at another planned fuel fabrication site, known as TX-2. The TX-2 facility is still in the design phase.

TRISO-X president and CEO Joel Duling said the new land acquisition for TX-1 will allow the company "to better plan for long-term development and expand our vision for the world's leading nuclear innovation campus."