Centrus, Oklo HALEU agreement to support reactor deployment

Centrus will supply HALEU from its American Centrifuge Plant in Pike County, Ohio to support Oklo's planned 1.2 GW power campus in the region under their Letter of Intent. The companies say this is one of the first large-scale commercial high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) supply agreements. A further definitive contract - which could include prepayments from Oklo to Centrus to support fuel supply for the campus buildout - is to be negotiated.

The agreement brings together domestic fuel supply, planned advanced nuclear power generation, customer demand, and project execution in southern Ohio while strengthening fuel certainty for Oklo's planned Aurora powerhouse deployments at a time when access to domestically sourced HALEU remains one of the central constraints facing the advanced nuclear sector, the companies said.

"Today's announcement is an important step toward ensuring reliable HALEU supply for next generation reactors and represents a crucial milestone as we work to restore America's ability to enrich uranium at scale," said Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler. "By connecting advanced nuclear power generation and customer demand with domestic HALEU production in southern Ohio, this agreement helps establish a foundation for a new US advanced nuclear energy hub."

HALEU fuel enriched to between 5% and 20% of the fissile uranium-235 isotope will be needed to fuel many of the advanced reactor designs that are under development. With no commercial source of the material in the USA, the US Department of Energy has been actively supporting the development of a domestic US supply chain. In 2019, it awarded Centrus a contract to license and construct a cascade of advanced centrifuges to demonstrate HALEU production at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, and in 2022 selected the company through a competitive process for the three-phase follow-on contract to bring the cascade into production and to deliver HALEU for the DOE's use. 

Last year, Centrus announced plans for a major expansion of the plant to boost production of both low-enriched uranium and HALEU. The expansion is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs and 300 new operating jobs in Ohio alone, while retaining the 150 jobs that existed at the Piketon plant when the expansion began, the company said.

Oklo's Aurora powerhouse is a fast neutron reactor that uses heat pipes to transport heat from the reactor core to a supercritical carbon dioxide power conversion system to generate electricity. The company held a groundbreaking ceremony at Idaho National Laboratory for its first reactor last September. In January, Tech giant Meta agreed to support the development of the planned 1.2 GW power campus in Pike County, by prepaying for power and provide funding to advance project certainty for Oklo's Aurora powerhouse deployment.

According to Oklo, establishing a commercial supply chain for advanced nuclear fuel and building a campus of Aurora powerhouses will require more than 700 full-time construction employees for multiple years across the deployment of sequential units. Each planned powerhouse is expected to support around 40 to 50 permanent jobs, with an additional 80 to 120 permanent roles created for every eight Aurora powerhouses, to support site-wide operations.

"This agreement aligns core elements of advanced nuclear deployment: power generation, fuel, and customer demand," said Oklo co-founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte. "Southern Ohio brings together decades of nuclear experience and a highly qualified workforce that can move advanced nuclear from planning to deployment."