Centrus Energy just locked in one of the more consequential fuel supply agreements in the nascent advanced nuclear sector. The company signed a Letter of Intent with Oklo to provide domestically sourced high-assay low-enriched uranium, known as HALEU, for up to five of Oklo’s Aurora microreactors over multiple years.

The market noticed. Centrus shares jumped approximately 9.6% in pre-market trading, while Oklo ticked up around 4%.

What HALEU is and why it matters

Think of HALEU as premium-grade fuel for next-generation nuclear reactors. Traditional nuclear plants run on uranium enriched to about 3-5%. HALEU is enriched to between 5% and 20%, which lets advanced reactor designs run more efficiently in smaller packages.

Centrus operates the only NRC-licensed HALEU production facility in the entire United States, located at its Piketon, Ohio site. That makes it, for now, the sole American option for any company trying to fuel advanced reactors without importing enriched uranium from abroad.

First deliveries under the agreement are scheduled to begin in 2029, which aligns with the timeline for Oklo’s broader energy ambitions in southern Ohio.

The Ohio megaproject taking shape

Oklo is building what it calls a 1.2 GW clean energy campus in southern Ohio, with a target of coming online by 2030. The campus will be anchored by Oklo’s Aurora powerhouses, compact fast-neutron reactors designed to generate clean energy with a dramatically smaller physical footprint than conventional nuclear plants.

Oklo also has a power agreement with Meta Platforms for this Ohio campus, which signals that Big Tech’s appetite for clean, reliable baseload power continues to drive real infrastructure investment.

A relationship years in the making

This isn’t a cold-call partnership. Centrus and Oklo have been circling each other for years. Their collaboration dates back to a 2021 Letter of Intent, followed by a 2023 Memorandum of Understanding that laid the groundwork for fuel supply and production discussions.

The two companies have also explored a potential joint venture focused on HALEU deconversion services, which is the process of converting enriched uranium from gas form into a solid or metallic form suitable for reactor fuel.

What this means for investors

The stock moves tell part of the story. Centrus getting a nearly 10% bump on a supply agreement, not a revenue announcement or earnings beat, reflects how starved the market is for tangible progress in the domestic HALEU space. Investors are pricing in optionality: if Centrus is the only game in town for American-made HALEU, every new advanced reactor project that needs fuel becomes a potential customer.

For Oklo, the 4% gain is more modest but still meaningful for a company that hasn’t yet generated revenue from operating reactors. Securing a credible fuel supply partner with actual production infrastructure removes one of the bigger execution risks from the company’s roadmap.

Risks remain substantial. Oklo’s Aurora reactors still need to clear regulatory hurdles and demonstrate commercial viability. The 2030 operational target for the Ohio campus is ambitious. And Centrus will need to scale its Piketon facility significantly beyond current production levels to meet the demand implied by fueling five reactors over multiple years.