Centrus Energy has completed and shipped the first new centrifuge from its Oak Ridge, Tennessee, manufacturing plant, marking a step toward a multibillion-dollar expansion of uranium-enrichment capacity in Ohio. The centrifuges will be sent to Ohio for final assembly into cascades, with manufacturing expected to ramp up over time.
The milestone advances Centrus’ effort to rebuild domestic capacity to produce nuclear fuel for power plants and national-security needs. The company said it reached the manufacturing and supply-chain milestones ahead of its previously announced year-end target.
- Ohio capacity is expected in 2029. The first new enrichment capacity from the expansion is scheduled to come online in Ohio that year, as previously announced.
- Oak Ridge is being built out for higher-volume production. Centrus restarted centrifuge manufacturing there in December 2025. In January 2026, it announced a $560 million investment to expand and modernize the facility, with a goal of making it capable of producing thousands of advanced centrifuges.
- The supply chain is domestic. Centrus says it has contracted with U.S. suppliers and ordered tens of thousands of parts. Earlier in October, it completed its acquisition of Westerman Holdings, a supplier of centrifuge casings and other major components.
- The expansion is intended to serve several markets. Centrus plans to produce low-enriched uranium for today’s reactor fleet, high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for next-generation reactors, and enrichment capacity for national-security needs.
- The technology is already operating in Ohio. Centrus says its existing centrifuge cascade has produced HALEU reliably since late 2023 and that its technology has accumulated more than four million successful machine-hours.
- Centrus says the manufacturing capability is unusual in the U.S. market. The company describes its Oak Ridge site as the country’s only advanced centrifuge manufacturing plant using proven technology, and says centrifuge technologies in commercial operation elsewhere are manufactured overseas.
The shipment connects Centrus’ expanded Tennessee manufacturing operation with its planned Ohio enrichment capacity. The stated goal is a domestic supply chain able to support both commercial nuclear-fuel production and national-security demand.