{"id":299507,"date":"2026-05-19T09:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/299507\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T09:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:32:18","slug":"x-energy-gets-federal-environmental-approval-for-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/299507\/","title":{"rendered":"X-energy gets federal environmental approval for Texas\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy included X-energy in its Advanced Reactor Concepts program. When the DOE established the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program in 2020, in which the federal government took on half the cost of building a\u00a0participating company\u2019s first reactor, X-energy was one of the first participants. While X-energy said it hasn\u2019t released price projections for each project, the company disclosed<\/a> to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the 50\/50 cost-share agreement with the DOE covered a\u00a0total estimated cost of up to $2.4 billion.<\/p>\n

In 2022, X-energy announced<\/a> Dow as its first commercial offtaker for the Texas project. Two years later, when the artificial intelligence boom spurred tech giants to sign a\u00a0series of deals with nuclear startups, Amazon placed its bet on X-energy, vowing to help finance construction of 5\u00a0gigawatts of reactors through deals to buy power for its data centers. The company took an equity stake in X-energy, which went public on April 24 on the Nasdaq composite.<\/p>\n

Amazon is now providing financing for the construction of X-energy\u2019s second project, a\u00a0multiphase expansion of an existing nuclear-energy complex in Washington state operated by the public utility Energy Northwest. Depending on the utility\u2019s willingness to buy the units, the startup aims to eventually build up to a\u00a0dozen of its Xe-100 reactors at the\u00a0site.<\/p>\n

On both projects, \u200b\u201ca real differentiator for us is truly how we used our pre-application process with the NRC,\u201d Taylor said. The company provided more than two dozen reports to the NRC ahead of submitting its application. \u200b\u201cWe submitted a\u00a0vast number of topical reports and white papers that we got feedback on that informed the design and formed the regulatory submittals,\u201d he said. \u200b\u201cWe substantially de-risked the project with the NRC through all of that engagement. Almost all the methodologies we use in designing the reactor and the support systems have been approved by the\u00a0NRC.\u201d<\/p>\n

While rival developers of next-generation small modular reactors and microreactors have pushed for regulatory changes or new licensing pathways that are designed to benefit new technologies, X-energy chose the time-honored pathway for permitting its first two projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart 50 is a\u00a0great process for new designs because it allows changes to the design as you construct,\u201d Taylor said. \u200b\u201cOnce we get the first approvals of our design under Part 50, and we get through that first operating license, we\u2019ll be in a\u00a0position to take a\u00a0standardized design back to the\u00a0NRC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the design elements that Taylor said bolster X-energy\u2019s safety qualities is the fact that the company is using tri-structural isotropic fuel, or TRISO for short. The fuel encases tiny bits of enriched uranium inside poppy seed\u2013sized balls coated in ceramic materials that effectively make a\u00a0meltdown impossible.<\/p>\n

TRISO, however, is far more expensive than the traditional low-enriched uranium fuel used in light-water reactors, which has held back its adoption to date. Only one commercial reactor uses TRISO worldwide today: the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor that China hooked up<\/a> to its grid in December 2022. Another experimental reactor operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency at a\u00a0facility north of Tokyo, whose design a\u00a0Japanese American startup is now looking to commercialize<\/a> in the U.S., also uses TRISO, as do nearly half a\u00a0dozen proposed designs now competing with X-energy.<\/p>\n

Unlike many other next-generation reactor designs that are using coolants such as molten salt, liquid sodium, or lead, X-energy\u2019s Xe-100 uses helium. This approach has decades of data to back it up, thanks to the earlier U.S. experiments with similar technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, Peach Bottom and Fort St. Vrain were great opportunities to demonstrate the technology nearly 50-plus years ago. But in the ensuing 50\u00a0years, [high-temperature gas-cooled reactors] have been run in multiple countries throughout the world, and TRISO fuel has gone through extensive testing,\u201d Taylor said. \u200b\u201cHTGRs back in the \u200b\u201970s were a\u00a0technology ahead of their time. We have the opportunity to seize on all that advancement and turn it into a\u00a0truly perfect commercial product that is safely operated throughout the\u00a0world.\u201d<\/p>\n

X-energy still faces the challenge of proving that it can avoid the hiccups previous high-temperature gas-cooled units faced in operation. Water-cooled reactors run at an unrivaled 95% of their lifespans in part because operators have the most experience perfecting the art of piloting such plants.<\/p>\n

But Taylor compared earlier versions of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors to one of the American automotive industry\u2019s biggest flops<\/a> of the mid-20th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe technologies between 50\u00a0years ago and today are both nuclear reactors, but it\u2019s an Edsel-to-a-Ferrari comparison,\u201d he said. \u200b\u201cIn this Ferrari, we know what we need to design for to get maximum performance out of it, we know what the challenging pieces are, what the hard issues are. Will we learn things? Sure, but we have so much more knowledge than those first ones did that we\u2019re designing out so many of the challenges they\u00a0faced.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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