LEU Enrichment Award Marks Third Selection for
Centrus under DOE's Nuclear Fuel Supply Program
BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 11,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Centrus Energy (NYSE
American: LEU) announced today that its subsidiary, American
Centrifuge Operating, LLC ("ACO"), has won an award from the U.S.
Department of Energy aimed at expanding domestic commercial
production of Low-Enriched Uranium ("LEU") to meet the needs of
existing and future nuclear reactors. This is the third selection
for Centrus under a series of three solicitations from the
Department as part of a program to restore America's domestic
nuclear fuel supply for LEU and High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium
("HALEU").
"Centrus is proud to be leading the effort to restore America's
ability to enrich uranium – with American technology, built by
American workers," said Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler. "This, along with our prior two
awards, is the next step towards creating a public-private
partnership to expand our enrichment capacity in Ohio to meet the full range of America's
commercial and national security requirements for enriched
uranium."
ACO is one of six awardees being announced today for LEU
production, with a minimum contract value of $2 million and a maximum value for all awardees
of $3.4 billion over a ten-year
period. The ultimate dollar amount associated with this award – and
the potential scale of the expansion supported — will depend upon
task orders subsequently issued by the U.S. Department of Energy to
Centrus.
Centrus announced on November 20,
2024, that it is resuming centrifuge manufacturing,
expanding the capacity of its Tennessee centrifuge manufacturing facility,
and preparing its Ohio operating
facility to accept, test and install centrifuges. Centrus expects
to invest $60 million in this effort
over an 18-month period so that it can scale up to meet the needs
of commercial and government customers as quickly as
possible.
ACO will manufacture the centrifuges and supporting equipment
exclusively in the United States,
relying upon domestic engineering and a domestic supply chain that
currently spans 14 major, American-owned suppliers in 13 states and
is expected to grow. The only other Western centrifuge technology
in commercial operation today is the European centrifuge design,
which is exclusively manufactured in the Netherlands.
Other Department Awards
Separate from this award, ACO was also one of the awardees
selected on October 17 to produce
HALEU for advanced reactors. Prior to this, Centrus was among the
awardees selected on October
8th to deconvert HALEU from uranium
hexafluoride (UF6) to uranium oxide and/or uranium metal forms, a
key step in the nuclear fuel production process which is separate
from, and subsequent to, production of HALEU via uranium
enrichment.
About Centrus Energy
Centrus Energy is a trusted American supplier of nuclear fuel
and services for the nuclear power industry, helping meet the
growing need for clean, affordable, carbon-free energy. Since 1998,
the Company has provided its utility customers with more than 1,850
reactor years of fuel, which is equivalent to more than 7 billion
tons of coal.
With world-class technical and engineering capabilities, Centrus
is pioneering production of High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium and is
leading the effort to restore America's uranium enrichment
capabilities at scale so that we can meet our clean energy, energy
security, and national security needs. Find out more at
www.centrusenergy.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within
the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. In this context, forward-looking statements mean statements
related to future events, which may impact our expected future
business and financial performance, and often contain words such as
"expects", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "will",
"should", "could", "would" or "may" and other words of similar
meaning. These forward-looking statements are based on information
available to us as of the date of this news release and represent
management's current views and assumptions with respect to future
events and operational, economic and financial performance.
Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future
performance, events or results and involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our
control.
For Centrus Energy Corp., particular risks and uncertainties
(hereinafter "risks") that could cause our actual future results to
differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking
statements and which are, and may be, exacerbated by any worsening
of the global business and economic environment include but are not
limited to the following: risks related to the U.S. Department of
Energy ("DOE") not awarding any contracts to the Company in
response to any of the Company's proposals; risks related to DOE
not issuing any task orders to any awardee under any of the LEU,
HALEU or Deconversion contracts or any task orders to the Company
under either of those contracts; risks related to the Company not
winning a task order under the HALEU contract to expand its HALEU
plant; risks related to DOE not providing adequate share of the
appropriated funding; risks related to our ability to secure
financing to expand our plant; risks related to our ability to
increase capacity in a timely manner to meet market demand or our
contractual obligations; risks related to laws or other government
actions that ban or restrict (i) imports of Russian LEU into
the United States or export of
Russian LEU out of Russia,
including but not limited to the "Prohibiting Russian Uranium
Imports Act" ("Import Ban Act") or Russian Federation Decree No.
1544 or (ii) transactions with the Russian State Atomic Energy
Corporation ("Rosatom") or its subsidiaries, which includes TENEX;
risks related to our potential inability to secure additional
waivers or other exceptions from the Import Ban Act or other
sanctions in a timely manner or at all in order to allow us to
continue importing Russian LEU under the TENEX Supply Contract or
otherwise doing business with TENEX or implementing the TENEX
Supply Contract; risks related to TENEX's refusal or inability to
deliver LEU to us for any reason including because (i) U.S. or
foreign government sanctions or bans are imposed on LEU from
Russia or on TENEX, (ii) TENEX is
prohibited, unable or unwilling to deliver or export LEU, receive
payments, receive the return of natural uranium hexafluoride, or
conduct other activities related to the TENEX Supply Contract, or
(iii) TENEX elects, or is directed (including by its owner or the
Russian government ), to limit or stop transactions with us or with
the United States or other
countries; risks related to the increasing quantities of LEU being
imported into the U.S. from China
and the impact on our ability to make future LEU or SWU sales or
ability to finance any buildout of our enrichment capacities; risks
related to whether or when government funding or demand for
high-assay low-enriched uranium ("HALEU") for government or
commercial uses will materialize and at what level; risks related
to (i) our ability to perform and absorb costs under our agreement
with the DOE to deploy and operate a cascade of centrifuges to
demonstrate production of HALEU for advanced reactors (the "HALEU
Operation Contract"), (ii) our ability to obtain new contracts and
funding to be able to continue operations and (iii) our ability to
obtain and/or perform under other agreements; risks related to
reliance on the only firm that has the necessary permits and
capability to transport LEU from Russia to the United
States and that firm's ability to maintain those permits and
capabilities or secure additional permits; risks that (i) we may
not obtain the full benefit of the HALEU Operation Contract and may
not be able or allowed to operate the HALEU enrichment facility to
produce HALEU after the completion of the HALEU Operation Contract
or (ii) the output from the HALEU enrichment facility may not be
available to us as a future source of supply; risks related to the
fact that we face significant competition from major LEU producers
who may be less cost sensitive or are wholly or partially
government owned; risks related to the potential for demobilization
or termination of the HALEU Operation Contract.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this
news release. These factors may not constitute all factors that
could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in any
forward-looking statement. Accordingly, forward-looking statements
should not be relied upon as a predictor of actual results. Readers
are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures
made in this news release and in our filings with the SEC,
including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2023, under Part II,
Item 1A – "Risk Factors" in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for
the quarter ended September 30, 2024,
and in our filings with the SEC that attempt to advise interested
parties of the risks and factors that may affect our business. We
do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements to
reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of
this news release, except as required by law.
Contacts:
Investors: Neal Nagarajan at
NagarajanNK@centrusenergy.com
Media: Lindsey Geisler at
GeislerLR@centrusenergy.com
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SOURCE Centrus Energy Corp.