Nuclear

X-energy, Dow to deploy SMR at Gulf Coast industrial site

X-energy’s Xe-100 SMR is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor that could address a broad range of uses, including applications that currently rely on fossil fuels to produce steam and heat for processes like manufacturing, petroleum refining and hydrogen production.
X-energy, Dow to deploy SMR at Gulf Coast industrial site
(A rendering of the Xe-100 reactor. Source: X-energy.)

X-Energy and Dow have entered into an agreement to demonstrate a grid-scale small modular reactor at a Gulf Coast industrial site.

X-Energy would install a 320 MW four-unit Xe-100 power plant at one of Dow’s sites. The plant would provide the facility with process heat and power. Dow, a chemicals company, makes a wide variety of products including polyethylene used in packaging, paints, and foams. The specific site location would be determined later in 2023, the companies said.

Dow now becomes a subawardee under the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). The joint agreement includes up to $50 million in engineering work, up to half of which could be funded through federal funding, and the other half by Dow. The scope of work also includes the preparation and submission of a Construction Permit application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The collaboration with Dow is potentially significant because of the need to decarbonize the energy-intensive industrial sector.

X-energy’s Xe-100 SMR is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. The Maryland-based company said its SMR can address a broad range of uses, including applications that currently rely on fossil fuels to produce steam and heat for processes like manufacturing, petroleum refining and hydrogen production.

X-energy was originally selected by DOE in 2020 to receive up to $1.2 billion to develop, license, build, and demonstrate an operational advanced reactor and fuel fabrication facility by the end of the decade. The company has since completed the engineering and basic design of the nuclear reactor, advanced development of a fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and is preparing to submit an application for licensure to the NRC.

X-energy originally planned to site the Xe-100 plant under this award at Energy Northwest’s Columbia nuclear plant in Washington state. When we asked about this change, a company spokesperson said X-energy had been engaging with Dow in parallel to these discussions with Energy Northwest, but that Dow is “ready to accelerate its timeline, deploy capital, and commit a site in the very near future to meet ARDP’s envisioned timeline.”

“By shifting the deployment order of the customers, it gives more flexibility to both Energy Northwest and Grant County PUD to work in a timeframe that more closely aligns with their ability to capitalize and mitigate the risks associated with plant deployment,” said the X-energy spokesperson.

The spokesperson added X-energy is “committed to supporting opportunities in Washington with Energy Northwest and Grant PUD as early as 2030.”