Companies eyeing site next to Columbia nuclear power station
Power company Energy Northwest and advanced small modular reactor developer X-energy have signed an agreement for a nuclear power station consisting of up to 12 Xe-100 advanced SMRs in central Washington state.
The facility would be capable of generating up to a total of 960 MW of electricity with the first module scheduled to be online by 2030.
Energy Northwest owns or operates power facilities throughout the Northwest region of the US, including the single-unit Columbia nuclear power station in Richland, which is the only commercial nuclear energy facility in the region.
Under the agreement with Rockville, Maryland-based X-energy, the Xe-100 project is expected to be developed at a site controlled by Energy Northwest next to Columbia.
Energy Northwest and X-energy have been discussing plans for an Xe-100 facility in central Washington since 2020. The agreement defines and details the scope, location, and schedule for commercial development. “The companies will also work together to determine the best approaches to licensing and regulatory matters, as well as the project delivery model,” Energy Northwest said in a statement.
The company said X-energy’s Xe-100 advanced reactor technology possesses many attributes ideally suited to a carbon-constrained electric system, and this agreement “reflects our determination to deliver the technologies to meet growing clean energy needs”.
Each Xe-100 module can provide 80 MW of full-time electricity or 200 MW of high-temperature steam. The modular design is road-shippable and intended to drive scalability, accelerate construction timelines and create more predictable and manageable construction costs.
The Xe-100 can power a broad range of applications through its high-temperature steam output. It could be used by large regional electricity providers and industry.
In May, US chemicals company Dow and X-energy announced they had chosen Dow’s UCC Seadrift Operations manufacturing site in Texas for a proposed Xe-100 project.
The project is focused on providing the Seadrift site with power and steam as existing power generation is retired.
Seadrift, on the Gulf of Mexico coast and about 150 miles (240 km) from Houston, is the second largest Dow facility in Texas, spanning about 4,700 acres (1,900 hectares) and employing more than 1,200 people.
Dow and X-energy said they will now prepare and submit a construction permit application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Construction on the four-reactor project is expected to begin in 2026 and to be completed by the end of this decade.
