X-energy is a private American nuclear reactor and fuel design engineering company. It is developing a
Generation IV high-temperature gas-cooled
pebble-bed nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...
design. It has received funding from private sources and various government grants and contracts, notably through the
Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Reactor Concept Cooperative Agreement in 2016 and its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) in 2020.
History
The company was founded in 2009 by
Kam Ghaffarian.
In January 2016, X-energy was provided a five-year grant of up to $40 million, as part of the DOE's Advanced Reactor Concept Cooperative Agreement to advance elements of their reactor development. In 2019, X-energy received funding from the
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...
to develop small military reactors for use at forward bases. Former
Deputy Secretary of Energy of the DOE,
Clay Sell
J. Clay Sell (born April 28, 1967) is the CEO of X-energy, a U.S. based, privately owned company that develops small modular nuclear reactors and advanced fuel technologyHALEU for clean energy generation. Sell previously served as United States De ...
, was appointed CEO of X-energy in 2019.
In October 2020, the company was chosen by the DOE as a recipient of a matching grant totaling between $400 million and $4 billion over the next 5 to 7 years for the cost of building a demonstration reactor of their Xe-100, helium-cooled
pebble-bed reactor design. This is part of the DOE's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which also awarded the same grant to
TerraPower.
In 2022,
Curtiss-Wright
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is an American manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation (business), consoli ...
agreed to act as the preferred supplier of 3 critical components of the Xe-100 reactor. The initial installation of the reactor is projected to be for
Energy Northwest in
Washington State
Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...
.
In March 2023, X-energy and
Dow Inc agreed to develop a grid-scale next-generation Xe-100 nuclear reactor at one of Dow's sites on the
U.S. Gulf Coast.
In December 2022, X-energy planned to
go public in a $2 billion deal using the
special-purpose acquisition company
A special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a blank check company or a blind-pool stock offering, is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring (or merging with) a private company, thus taking ...
Ares Acquisition, but this was called off in October 2023 due to the then macroeconomic situation and the effect on the market of the cancellation of the first U.S. SMR deployment project, the
Carbon Free Power Project, because of cost increases. The company laid off some staff in November 2023.
In December 2023, the company raised $235 million of investment in a new funding round from existing investors.
Reactor design
The Xe-100 is a proposed
pebble bed high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor design that is planned to be smaller, simpler and safer when compared to conventional nuclear designs. Pebble bed high temperature gas-cooled reactors were first proposed in 1944. Each reactor is planned to generate 200
MWt and approximately 76 MWe. The fuel for the Xe-100 is a spherical fuel element, or pebble, that utilizes the tristructural isotropic (
TRISO) particle nuclear fuel design, with
high-assay LEU (HALEU) uranium fuel enriched to 20%, to allow for longer periods between refueling. X-energy claims that TRISO fuel will make nuclear meltdowns virtually impossible.
See also
*
Washington Xe-100 reactor site
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
Official website
Nuclear power companies of the United States