Shares of Centrus Energy Corp. (LEU), a leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel, surged over 10% in pre-market trading on Tuesday, driven by news of NANO Nuclear Energy Inc.'s strategic investment and collaboration with LIS Technologies Inc., a developer of a patented laser-based uranium enrichment technology.

NANO Nuclear, a leading advanced nuclear energy company, announced that it has invested $2 million in LIS Technologies' recent seed funding round and signed an agreement to collaborate on advancing LIS Technologies' cutting-edge enrichment technology. As part of the deal, LIS Technologies will ultimately provide NANO Nuclear with enriched uranium hexafluoride (UF6) fuel for use in its portable microreactors and for future sale to third parties.

The collaboration aims to reinvigorate the United States' domestic uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication capabilities, which have diminished in recent years. NANO Nuclear believes that LIS Technologies' laser-based enrichment process has the potential to produce commercial quantities of low-enriched uranium (LEU) and high-assay LEU (HALEU) within the next decade. HALEU is essential for the next generation of advanced small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors that NANO Nuclear and other companies are developing, potentially creating new demand for enriched uranium fuel from suppliers like Centrus.