X-energy Wins NRC Permit for First SMR Build
Original: X-energy gets green light to build its first small modular nuclear reactors
Why This Matters
First U.S. advanced reactor permit at an industrial site marks an SMR milestone.
The NRC approved X-energy's permit to build four Xe-100 reactors at a Dow chemical plant in Texas — the first advanced nuclear reactor permit at a U.S. industrial site. Each unit produces 80 MW electric and 200 MW heat; operation expected early 2030s.
Nuclear startup X-energy received federal approval Monday to begin construction on four of its Xe-100 small modular reactors at a Dow Chemical facility in Texas. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's construction permit is the first granted for an advanced nuclear reactor at an industrial site in the U.S. Each Xe-100 unit will generate 80 megawatts of electricity and 200 megawatts of heat using a helium-cooled, pebble-bed design that X-energy claims is safer than conventional reactors. The Union of Concerned Scientists pushed back hard. 'The NRC only accomplished this feat by pushing consideration of critical safety questions to a later date — issues the NRC should've fully resolved before green lighting construction,' said Edwin Lyman, the group's director of nuclear power safety. No SMR is currently operating in the United States, and X-energy's Texas reactors won't come online until the early 2030s at the earliest. Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund led X-energy's $500 million Series C-1, and Amazon has committed to purchasing 5 gigawatts of capacity from the company. X-energy went public in April, raising $1 billion, but shares have since fallen to less than half the IPO price. The permit news provided only a modest stock recovery — enough to erase the prior week's losses, nothing more.