00:00First off, tell us big picture. You know, like Dan Ives always says demand for AI is 12 to 1 compared to the amounts of chips out there.
00:10I'm not sure exactly what he means, but what about demand for power? How high is it compared to what we what we can supply now?
00:18Well, good morning, everyone. Yeah. So we from our perspective, for those of you who are not familiar with with Centris, Centris is a uranium enrichment company.
00:28Most of the nuclear reactors in the world require uranium enrichment.
00:34We are the only American technology, American owned company and with the only ones that are not majority state owned.
00:43To your question about energy, it has been really quite fascinating to watch what has happened in the past year.
00:50The demand has been has been hugely associated with the eye.
00:54But let's not forget the demand out there for nuclear fuel and what we're dealing with.
01:01You know, for us, AI is just a top up.
01:04I mean, we have a base case assumption that really majority of it does not include AI growth.
01:10I mean, we're seeing a lot of commercial nuclear growth and we're seeing a lot of growth in national security in the United States and a lot of demand for for enrichment of uranium for that.
01:21Amir, President Trump signed an executive order in May calling for the U.S. to speed up production of enriched uranium.
01:29Are you seeing that practically in the marketplace these days? Is that impacting your business?
01:33Oh, absolutely.
01:34I think one of the one of the best things that that happened to us in the recent history is the focus that the president, in fact, has put on on the uranium enrichment side of the fuel cycle.
01:45It is the largest constraint, in my view, in the entire fuel cycle and the ability to to to power the existing reactors and the future reactors.
01:55And so, absolutely, we we see a lot of activity, so much so in that we have announced a few weeks ago that we are commencing the construction fabrication of uranium centrifuges in our facility in Ohio.
02:09And by the way, we saw in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, by the way, we were headquartered in Bethesda and we operate two plants, one in Tennessee and one in Ohio, where the enrichment is done.
02:19And I'm here for the holidays in Toronto. So you see the beautiful skyline of Toronto right behind me. But but we are, you know, based out of out of Bethesda and in the United States.
02:30Why why choose my home state of Ohio? You're located right there.
02:34Like if I'm driving from Columbus past Chillicothe down to Ashland, you're right in the middle there in Piketon. Why do you choose that location?
02:42Oh, we we go we go way back in that in that facility. That facility was originally constructed for a demonstration program of some of the centrifuges that we worked on with the Department of Energy.
02:57I mean, the the ability of somebody to get into the uranium business, the uranium enrichment business, the barriers to entry is almost insurmountable.
03:06So, I mean, that's a great question. I mean, we've been working on our technology for decades in collaboration with the Department of Energy.
03:14And that was one of the original facilities where we have installed some of our demo cascades and centrifuges.
03:22In the past two years, we have built a demo cascade that has been producing HALU, which is a high assay, low enriched uranium.
03:31It's a slightly more enriched uranium that is meant to power advanced reactors.
03:36And that's where we've been operating that cascade from. That's where we've been enriching it from.
03:40So our huge build out is going to happen in that facility.
03:45Not sure I can exactly answer why Ohio was picked for that, but we love the area.
03:51We have some real talent in that area, and we're able to attract some real talent in Tennessee as well.
03:56I mean, I was just wondering if I was wondering if the Scioto River has anything to do with it because it runs right through Piketon there.
04:02That's a good question. I may have to consult with some of the historians in the company.
04:07Hey, Amir, one technology that's got my attention here as we think about powering this AI revolution is small modular reactors, small nuclear reactors.
04:17Talk to us about that technology, and what do you think of it?
04:23My personal opinion is it is exciting. I think it's fantastic.
04:27There's a lot of companies here in the United States that are developing really exciting new technologies to make the reactors more efficient, more productive, safer.
04:36However, my personal opinion is it really does not matter to Centris.
04:42Centris is obviously cheering everybody on.
04:45We want large reactors to win. We want small reactors to win.
04:48We want advanced reactors to win.
04:51But at the end of the day, the enrichment will be required for that growth.
04:55You know, maybe more specifically to your question, I mean, I would love to see a world where we have a real balanced build-out of large reactors.
05:05And I think you heard President Trump announce that there's going to be build-out of the Westinghouse AP1000s.
05:11And we're also hearing that there's quite a few advanced reactors, small modular reactor companies that are very close to demonstrating their capability
05:20and being able to start putting power on the grid and not too long from now.
05:23So my personal view is it's exciting.
05:26Where it comes from, it matters not to Centris.
05:29We're cheering everybody on.
05:30Amir, what about transportation?
05:33I'm just curious about the logistics.
05:35I'm sure you don't put it in the back of an F-150 and truck it off to Three Mile Island.
05:39So how do you move enriched uranium around?
05:43Yeah, so it depends on what state the enriched uranium is in.
05:48Typically, post-enrichment activities, it is in uranium hexafluoride state, which is sort of like a gaseous form.
05:57And this is so tightly regulated by the NRC and the DOT.
06:03There are licensed containers that are designed and have been tested in a series of stress tests
06:09to make sure that all transportation of uranium is done safely and the public is protected.
06:15And quite honestly, the transportation is very standard.
06:19It's been happening for decades and decades now.
06:22And it's been happening in maritimes.
06:24It's been happening on the roads and highways and on rails.
06:27It's a licensed activity.
06:30And there's licensed containers that have been tested and stress tested for that.
06:33I bought it at the lumbar.
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