PIKETON, Ohio — Centrus Energy Corp. is raising its hiring target for its Pike County uranium enrichment plant, now planning to add at least 175 net new jobs there in 2026, up from a previous goal of 100, the company said in its second-quarter earnings report released Wednesday.
The Bethesda, Maryland-based nuclear fuel company also disclosed it hired at least 100 net new employees at its Oak Ridge, Tennessee, facility as part of a broader buildout of centrifuge manufacturing capacity at both sites.
Centrus reported second-quarter revenue of $176.1 million, up 14% from $154.5 million a year earlier, driven largely by growth in its enrichment segment. Net income fell to $16.8 million from $28.9 million in the same quarter last year, a decline the company attributed mainly to higher stock-compensation and administrative costs. On an adjusted basis, which excludes those one-time expansion costs, net income rose to $38.7 million from $34.5 million.
The company said its combined sales backlog reached $4.5 billion as of June 30, extending through 2040. That includes about $3.0 billion in contingent low-enriched and high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, sales commitments tied to the possible construction of new production capacity at the Piketon site, according to the release.
During the quarter, Centrus said it signed a $900 million HALEU enrichment award contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, a deal first announced in January to support commercial-scale enrichment production. The company also said it selected Geiger Brothers as the construction contractor for its uranium enrichment plant expansion and signed what it called a first-of-a-kind, large-scale commercial HALEU supply agreement that could include prepayments from customers.
“This was another strong quarter of financial and operational progress for Centrus that included a number of commercial wins for our future enrichment business as we capitalize on strong industry tailwinds and our operational momentum,” Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler said in a statement. “Operationally we continued on full-execution mode for our centrifuge manufacturing and expansion programs.”
Vexler said the company expects to complete its first new centrifuge at the Oak Ridge facility by the end of the year, a milestone that follows Centrus’ announcement in December that it had begun building centrifuges for the Piketon expansion.
Not all of the company’s federal funding picture is growing. Centrus said the Department of Energy’s proposed fiscal year 2027 budget does not include further funding for operation of the HALEU cascade under a separate production contract, representing about $800 million of the company’s technical solutions backlog. The company said DOE has also indicated it does not currently intend to exercise further options under that contract.
For the full year, Centrus said it expects total company revenue between $450 million and $500 million and capital spending between $350 million and $500 million, driven by continued investment in its centrifuge manufacturing buildout at Piketon and Oak Ridge.
The information contained in this story was obtained from a Centrus Energy Corp. news release and securities filing.
