Geveden detailed the opportunity during BWXT’s second-quarter 2026 earnings call. The company expects to demonstrate an operational centrifuge in the second half of this year after establishing a manufacturing development facility and transferring technology from a federal laboratory.
That work represents the front end of a wider enrichment effort, Geveden said. At the other end is the licensing and construction of a plant capable of carrying out the highly enriched uranium portion of the process required for stockpile replenishment.
“The space in between is where the real opportunity is,” Geveden said. He pointed to potential plants that would enrich depleted or natural uranium into low-enriched uranium, and then move material from low-enriched uranium into High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium, or HALEU.
The concept would require capacity across successive enrichment levels before material could reach the highly enriched stage. Geveden described the potential LEU and HALEU facilities as very large-scale projects, although BWXT has not committed to building them.
Any such expansion would also carry specific supply-chain requirements. Geveden said the equipment used throughout the process must be “unobligated,” which he defined as U.S.-sourced, creating a more specialized supply base and higher costs.
Those requirements also affect the economics of the potential facilities. Geveden said BWXT would need to determine whether enrichment into LEU and HALEU could support a commercially viable operation on a contribution-margin basis.
BWXT is already working with the National Nuclear Security Administration on its Defense Fuels Enrichment program. Geveden said the effort was moving quickly and that the company remained closely engaged with the agency as it prepared for the centrifuge demonstration.
The enrichment work sits alongside BWXT’s High-Purity Depleted Uranium program, another major growth area within its special materials business. The company is preparing to begin construction of new HPDU plants in Jonesborough, Tennessee, as part of its expanding government nuclear operations.
Geveden’s comments point to a potential expansion of BWXT’s role beyond centrifuge development into a much broader domestic enrichment infrastructure. For now, the clearest near-term milestone is the planned operational centrifuge demonstration, while decisions on larger LEU, HALEU and highly enriched uranium facilities remain further out.
