NEW YORK/PIKETON, Ohio — Centrus Energy Corp. marked the launch of a multi‑billion‑dollar uranium enrichment expansion in southern Ohio with a high‑profile turn on Wall Street this morning, as the company’s chief executive rang the New York Stock Exchange opening bell to signal what it calls a new chapter for America’s nuclear fuel supply chain.
The expanded project at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon is expected to directly create about 1,300 construction and operations jobs in Ohio, part of a broader build‑out aimed at supplying both today’s commercial reactors and tomorrow’s advanced designs with domestically produced fuel. Centrus says the effort, backed in part by a $900 million task order from the U.S. Department of Energy, will significantly increase output of low‑enriched uranium (LEU) and high‑assay, low‑enriched uranium (HALEU), two fuels viewed as critical to U.S. energy security and national defense.
“The multi‑billion‑dollar expansion we launched in December will provide an assured, affordable, domestic source of enriched uranium,” Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler said in a statement ahead of the bell‑ringing ceremony, framing the Piketon build‑out as a way to reduce reliance on foreign, state‑owned suppliers. The company is positioning the southern Ohio campus as a hub for both civilian and national security missions, noting that its technology is currently the only production‑ready U.S. option for large‑scale enrichment and for supplying HALEU for advanced reactors.
The Piketon expansion follows years of work to restart activity at a Cold War‑era enrichment complex that once helped fuel U.S. nuclear weapons and power reactors before shutting down in the early 2000s. Centrus now plans to add enough capacity to work through a commercial LEU order backlog valued at roughly $2.3 billion while also meeting a DOE requirement to deliver at least 900 kilograms of HALEU per year for up to nine years.
Federal funding and private capital are both central to the project’s financing. In January, DOE selected Centrus for the $900 million task order to expand commercial‑scale HALEU production in Piketon, with additional LEU output targeted to serve the existing reactor fleet. The company says it has raised more than $1.2 billion over the last year and secured more than $2 billion in contingent purchase commitments from utility customers around the world to underpin its broader growth strategy.
Ohio leaders have cast the expansion as a major economic and strategic win for the state. Gov. Mike DeWine has pointed to the site’s legacy role in U.S. national defense and argued that a new wave of enrichment capacity in Piketon “underscores Ohio’s importance in supporting our nation’s economic and national security,” while Lt. Gov. Jon Husted has said boosting in‑state enrichment “will continue America’s legacy as the global leader in nuclear development.”
For Pike County, a largely rural community still grappling with the economic fallout of previous federal cutbacks at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the promise of 1,000 construction jobs and about 300 new permanent operations positions offers a rare shot of large‑scale industrial growth. JobsOhio and regional development groups have pledged long‑term support for recruiting and training, even as state officials note there are currently no direct state grants or tax credits committed to the project.
The Piketon expansion also ties into a broader manufacturing push in Tennessee, where Centrus is enlarging its Technology and Manufacturing Center in Oak Ridge to build the centrifuges that will be shipped to Ohio for installation. That investment is expected to add roughly 430 jobs in Anderson County, Tennessee, and support hundreds more across a nationwide supplier network, further embedding the project in a domestic supply chain that company executives say is essential for energy security.
Industry analysts say the timing reflects a global pivot back toward nuclear energy as countries look for low‑carbon, always‑on power to complement renewables. By scaling up both LEU and HALEU production, Centrus is betting that U.S. utilities and developers of small modular and advanced reactors will pay a premium for fuel that is sourced and enriched entirely within the United States, particularly as policymakers seek to reduce exposure to Russian and other foreign suppliers.
With steel, concrete and centrifuge production already ramping up, company leaders say the ceremonial ring on the NYSE floor is less about symbolism and more about signaling that the long‑planned Piketon expansion has moved into full execution mode. For southern Ohio, the real test will come over the next several years, as Centrus works to turn Wall Street fanfare and federal contracts into lasting jobs, local tax revenue and a central role in the nation’s next nuclear era.