PIKETON, Ohio — Centrus Energy has shipped the first newly manufactured centrifuge from its Oak Ridge, Tennessee, plant toward final assembly in Ohio, marking the next step in a multibillion-dollar expansion of the company’s uranium enrichment capacity at its Piketon site.
The company said the centrifuge completed and left its Oak Ridge manufacturing facility on Thursday, ahead of a previously announced year-end target. Centrifuges built in Tennessee will continue to ship to Ohio for final assembly, with the manufacturing rate expected to grow over time, according to Centrus.
“Completing the first new centrifuge for our expansion and standing up a one-of-a-kind supply chain are significant moments for our team and this country,” Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler said in a statement. “Building this unique manufacturing capability at scale takes specialized expertise, time, precision and sustained commitment.”
Centrus’ existing centrifuge cascade in Piketon has been producing High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium, or HALEU, since late 2023, using components built in 2019 and earlier years. The company restarted centrifuge manufacturing in Oak Ridge in December 2025 to feed the new Ohio expansion, and in January announced a $560 million investment to convert its Oak Ridge Technology and Manufacturing Center into a high-rate plant capable of producing thousands of advanced centrifuges.
Centrus said it has been manufacturing thousands of individual centrifuge components while building out its supplier network, ordering tens of thousands of parts from American manufacturers to secure what it calls an “unobligated” supply chain able to serve both commercial customers and national security needs. Earlier this month, the company completed its acquisition of Westerman Holdings, a supplier of centrifuge casings and other major components, to further secure that supply chain.
The new centrifuges manufactured in Tennessee will be grouped into cascades in Ohio, with the first new enrichment capacity expected online at the Piketon site in 2029, the company said. The expansion is intended to produce low-enriched uranium for the existing commercial reactor fleet, HALEU for next-generation reactors, and enriched uranium for national security needs.
Centrus said its Oak Ridge facility is the only advanced centrifuge manufacturing plant in the United States with proven, de-risked technology, noting that all other centrifuge technologies in commercial operation today are manufactured overseas.
The information contained in this story was obtained from Centrus Energy Corp.
