Centrus Energy Corp.

Greetings, and welcome to the Centris Energy third quarter 2023 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Dan Listakow, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Thank you, Dan. You may begin.

Good morning. Thank you all for joining us. Today's call will cover the results for the third quarter of 2023, ended September 30th. Today we have Dan Poneman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Kevin Harrell, Chief Financial Officer. Before turning the call over to Dan Poneman, I'd like to welcome all of our callers, as well as those listening to our webcast. This conference follows our earnings news release yesterday. We expect to file our report for the third quarter of 2023 on Form 10Q later today. All of our news releases and SEC filings, including our 10-K, 10-Qs, and 8-Ks, are available on our website. A replay of this call will also be available later this morning on the Centris website. I would like to remind everyone that certain information we may discuss on this call today may be considered forward-looking information that involves risk and uncertainty, including assumptions about the future performance of Centris. Our actual results may differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in our forward-looking statements is contained in our filings with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Finally, the forward-looking information provided today is time-sensitive and accurate only as of today, November 8, 2023, unless otherwise noted. This call is a property of Centris Energy. Any transcription, redistribution, retransmission, or rebroadcast of the call in any form without the express written consent of Centris is strictly prohibited. Thank you for your participation, and I now turn the call over to Dan Pondman.

Thank you, Dan, and thank you to everyone on the call today. This was another great quarter for Centris. While we always remind investors that our business runs on a year-to-year basis, not fairly represented by quarterly results, we were nevertheless pleased to deliver $8.2 million in profit to our shareholders this quarter. This time, the big news, however, is measured neither on a quarterly nor even on an annual basis, but rather on a scale of 3 score and 10. Why so? Because a few weeks ago, Centris inaugurated the first new U.S.-owned U.S. technology uranium enrichment plant to start production in nearly 70 years. As we speak, Centris is now producing high-assay, low-enriched uranium, or HALU, right here in the United States, in Piketon, Ohio, to be specific. Using parts we manufactured in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with an American workforce, rebuilding America's domestic nuclear supply chain. That is an historic accomplishment. Last month, We were pleased to host so many people who care about America's energy future and national security who came to Python to participate in the launch of this 16th Centrifuge Demonstration Cascade. Our speakers included leaders from government, labor, and industry, Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, Congressman Chuck Fleischman, Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk, DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Katie Huck, north america's building trades unions president sean mcgarvey national association of manufacturers president and ceo jay timmon and pike county commissioner tony montgomery representatives from advanced reactor companies utilities non-governmental organizations and local community organizations all participated so did our brothers and sisters from the united steel workers international brotherhood of electrical workers The buildings trades and the pipe fitters all came to witness America taking an essential step to restoring the global leadership in nuclear fuels that we once enjoyed and should never have lost. Building on that momentum, Centris now has completed production of the first 20 kilograms of HALU. That means that we have demonstrated that our technology works, and that we have completed phase one of the contract we signed with the department in 2022. Notably, we did so under budget and nearly two months ahead of schedule, a rarity for first-of-a-kind projects in the nuclear arena and a testament to the team's extraordinary work. In phase two of the operations contract, we are required to produce 900 kilograms of HALU for the department over the next 12 months, Under the contract, the Department of Energy is obligated to provide the HALU storage cylinders necessary to collect the output of the cascade. Centris will fill the department's cylinders with HALU and deliver that material to a secure fissile material storage area we've built. Shareholders may recall that phase one of the contract required a 50-50 cost share with the Department of Energy. In phase two, DOE will pay the full cost of production plus an incentive fee. and the department will receive the output of the cascade. In phase three, subject to the availability of appropriated funds, the department has the option to grant up to three three-year extensions. If combined with phase two, that could add up to 10 years of production overall on a cost plus incentive fee basis. While this contract is critical in demonstrating the viability of our technology and providing up to 9,000 kilograms of HALU to the Department of Energy to support the developing advanced reactor market, what's even more important is that it establishes a strong foundation to build more machines and expand production to address any level of demand for a secure domestic source of both HALU and low enriched uranium or LEU. The way Americans think about supply chains and domestic resilience in the face of critical challenges has shifted dramatically over the past few years. The supply chain bottlenecks uncovered by the COVID pandemic, followed by the crisis facing the U.S. semiconductor industry, and finally the invasion of Ukraine made Americans realize ever more clearly the importance of ensuring that we have a robust domestic supply chain for commodities that are vital to our national security and economic well-being. It has become as clear as day that it is foolish to rely exclusively on foreign state-owned enterprises for such things as, in this case, the nuclear fuel that powers one fifth of our nation's electrical grid and provides nearly half of our carbon-free electricity. But through a series of missteps and misfortunes, that is exactly what happened. In the commercial market for LEU, 100% of the world's uranium enrichment capacity now belongs to foreign state-owned enterprises. According to the latest figures from the World Nuclear Association, Russia alone holds 44% of the world's uranium enrichment capacity. There is simply not enough non-Russian enrichment to fuel the world's reactors. Adding in China, those two suppliers account for more than half of global capacities. As end users look to secure long-term contracts for fuel from suppliers outside of Russia or China, their options are limited. To transition the United States, Europe, and other friendly countries around the world away from dependence on Russia, the market will need more supply and more suppliers to provide secure, diversified sources of fuel for their reactor fleets. We believe that Centris, as America's uranium enrichment company, is well-suited to help fill the gap and bring greater supply diversity to the marketplace for LEU as well as HALU. While LEU is essential to fuel the 93 reactors already operating in the United States, HALU is the fuel of choice for most of the advanced reactor designs now under development. And Centris currently has the only Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to produce HALU in the United States. In fact, until last month, Russia was the only commercial Haley producer in the world. Having our demonstration cascade up and running gives us a critical beachhead as we look to build a scaled-up facility able to satisfy Haley demand as it develops in the next few years. We will continue to advance our technology, train our workforce, maintain our NRC license, and expand our capabilities, all of which will support our commercial expansion in the years ahead. A commercial-scale cascade with 120 centrifuges can produce about six metric tons of HALU per year. With adequate funding and support, we have the capability to bring an initial commercial-scale cascade online within 42 months. Having built out that supply chain, centers could then add a second HALU cascade six months later and then... bring all subsequent cascades online every two months thereafter once we have built out that supply chain and leveraged the learning and improvements we make every time we build a new cascade. That is how American industry has always driven efficiency. We have the technology, the license, the site, the space, the skills, and the ability to do this. Having a passionate and experienced workforce is essential. Now we are looking for the investment and the firm orders needed to unleash these capabilities and restore a domestic uranium enrichment capability at industrial scale. Of course, it is never easy to reestablish a lost industrial capability in a strategic sector completely controlled by foreign state-owned enterprises, so success will depend on government investment as well as private capitals. That is why the emerging consensus around the need for significant government investment on both sides of the aisle and at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue is so encouraging. But government needs to know that the private sector is also prepared to step up and do its part. And we are. Reactor developers that will need significant amounts of HALU for their projects that are expected to come online in the next few years are beginning the process of securing the source of that HALU sooner than rather than later. There's perhaps no better illustration of this urgency than the memoranda of understanding that we signed during the third quarter with two leading advanced reactor developers, TerraPower and Oklo. Under these MOUs, we intend to work toward definitive agreements that would help establish a cost-competitive and timely source of enrichment capacity for TerraPower's Natrium demonstration reactor ahead of its 2030 operations date, And that would help Oaklo not only fuel their Aurora powerhouses, but also manufacture reactor components and potentially provide fuel fabrication services as well. These efforts would leverage our facilities and technical capabilities in Pipeton, as well as our advanced manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. So this is a moment of promise and hope for the industry and for the nation. and we look forward to building on recent successes to create a more secure and prosperous energy future. With that, I'm very pleased to turn it over to Kevin Harrell, who recently transitioned as the company's chief accounting officer to our new chief financial officer. Kevin?