Centrus Energy Corp. (LEU) saw its shares surge nearly 8% in pre-market trading on Tuesday after NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. announced a strategic investment and collaboration with LIS Technologies Inc. (LIST), a developer of a patented laser-based uranium enrichment technology.

NANO Nuclear, a leading advanced nuclear energy company, has invested $2 million in LIST's recent seed funding round and signed an agreement to collaborate on advancing LIST's cutting-edge enrichment technology. Under the deal, LIST 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 revitalize the United States' domestic uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication capabilities, which have diminished in recent years. NANO Nuclear believes LIST's technology 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.