X-Energy’s gas-cooled small modular reactor (SMR) design has received its Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER) and completed its safety review with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). This clears the path for construction approval of X-Energy’s first plant at the Long Mott Generating Station in Texas. 

The increasing demand for carbon-free energy is bringing back nuclear power. Modern nuclear power is shifting away from massive, slow-to-build traditional plants toward small modular reactors (SMRs). These factory-built units can be easily assembled to customize a plant’s capacity.

US-based companies are leading the charge on small- and micro-scale nuclear reactors that can serve off-grid locations, while also using alternative fuels instead of enriched uranium. Rockville, Maryland-based X-Energy is a developer of SMR and alternative fuel technology that can help deliver carbon-free energy. 

X-Energy’s Xe-100 is a fourth-generation reactor based on high-temperature gas-cooling technology. Featuring a graphite core for neutron moderation, the reactor uses pressurized helium gas as a coolant and can generate 80 MWe of electricity or 200 MWt of industrial process heat, in the range of 1049-1382 Fahrenheit (565-750 degrees Celsius). 

The Xe-100 uses Tristructural Isotropic (TRISO) fuel, which consists of thousands of microscopic uranium kernel particles inside graphite spheres no bigger than a billiard ball. The uranium in the kernels is 20 percent High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU). Given the nature of the fuel, it can be fed into the reactor while it is online. 

X-Energy plans to deploy its reactors in a four-pack assembly generating 320 MWe of electricity or 800 MWt of heat .

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