Domestic uranium is in scarce supply. And that’s exactly why the United States Department of Energy is backing Centrus Energy.
What’s happening:
- Centrus Energy (NYSE: LEU) has won an award from the United States Department of Energy to expand their domestic production of high-assay, low enriched uranium
Why it matters:
- With the rapid rise of nuclear power deals being inked by large technology giants such as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), domestic uranium production is becoming increasingly more important in order to supply new nuclear energy infrastructure
By the numbers:
- The United States Department of Energy has selected 4 companies so far for contracts for domestic uranium production
- The contracts have a minimum value of $2M USD and a maximum total value of up to $2.7B USD over a 10 year period
Going deeper:
- The United Kingdom has also been getting serious about securing high-assay, low enriched uranium which previously led to a multi hundred million dollar commitment to ramp up new production sources
- Publicly listed uranium companies have been scaling up production capabilities recently as well, notably with Uranium Energy (NYSE: UEC) getting approval from the government of Wyoming for expanding their total annual production at their Irigaray Processing Plant
The intrigue:
- This is not the first award from the United States Department of Energy that Centrus Energy has won, recently having their subsidiary American Centrifuge Operating land a deal to convert high-assay, low enriched uranium hexafluoride into uranium oxide or uranium metal forms which is a highly important component of nuclear fuel production
