CENTRUS ENERGY CORP (LEU)

Centrus Energy Corp., a Delaware corporation incorporated in 1998 as part of the privatization of the U.S. Government's uranium enrichment enterprise, is a trusted supplier of enriched uranium fuel and services for the nuclear power industry, supporting carbon-free energy production. The company operates through two business segments: LEU, which provides the majority of company revenue by supplying enriched uranium components (primarily measured in separative work units, or SWU) to commercial utility customers through a global network of suppliers, long-term contracts, and spot purchases with an order book extending through 2029; and Technical Solutions, which delivers advanced engineering, design, and manufacturing services to government and private sector customers while working to restore domestic uranium enrichment capability critical to U.S. national security and energy objectives. Centrus's proprietary AC100M centrifuge is currently the only deployment-ready U.S. enrichment technology capable of meeting national security requirements, following the 2013 shutdown of the Paducah facility, which left the U.S. without domestic enrichment capacity for such purposes.

The company is pioneering domestic production of High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU), a critical fuel component for next-generation advanced nuclear reactors requiring U235 concentrations between 5% and 20%; Centrus holds the only NRC license to enrich uranium up to 20% U235 assay, positioning it uniquely to address a widely-cited industry bottleneck in HALEU supply that has hindered commercialization of advanced reactor designs, nine of ten of which selected under the DOE's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program require HALEU. Under a DOE-funded HALEU Demonstration Contract (with cumulative funding of $168.7 million), Centrus constructed a cascade of sixteen AC100M centrifuges at its Piketon, Ohio facility to demonstrate HALEU production, with the DOE subsequently shifting operational continuation to a new competitively-awarded HALEU Operation Contract signed in 2022. The company's key facilities include the Piketon, Ohio production site and the American Centrifuge Operating (ACO) subsidiary, while historical operations included the now-shuttered Paducah, Kentucky and Portsmouth, Ohio gaseous diffusion plants.

Centrus maintains critical supply relationships including a long-term SWU supply agreement with Orano signed in 2018 and a supply contract with Russia's TENEX extending through 2028, though geopolitical developments—particularly Russia's invasion of Ukraine—have introduced significant market uncertainty, with SWU spot prices surging 96% in 2022 alone to $110 per SWU amid concerns over Russian supply reliability. The global uranium enrichment market is characterized as oversupplied when including Russian capacity but undersupplied without it, creating strategic opportunities and risks as advanced reactor developers, the U.S. Department of Defense (via its Project Pele mobile microreactor initiative), and the U.S. Air Force pursue HALEU-fueled technologies expected to see growing demand in the mid-to-late 2020s, notwithstanding technical, regulatory, and competitive uncertainties, including potential entry by foreign government-owned enrichment entities.