Small Modular Reactors

X-energy / US Reactor Developer Secures $25 Million From South Korea To Support Worldwide SMR Deployment

By David Dalton
18 January 2023

Company behind Xe-100 technology continuing bid to go public
US Reactor Developer Secures $25 Million From South Korea To Support Worldwide SMR Deployment
A rendering of an X-energy Xe-100 small modular reactor plant. Courtesy X-energy.
US-based small modular reactor developer X-Energy has announced investment from South Korea-based multinationals DL E&C and Doosan Enerbility of $25m (€23m) in a private round of financing to support the advancement of the global deployment of its Xe-100 Generation IV advanced SMR.

Doosan – which will continue to work with X-energy as a major component and system vendor – will engineer, supply and manufacture key components for the Xe-100 plant, including the reactor pressure vessel.

Doosan and X-energy also plan to pursue various applications of the Xe-100 technology such as the provision of power and heat to industrial processes like hydrogen production.

DL E&C will work with X-energy to identify opportunities to support the deployment of Xe-100 plants “on a global scale”.

In addition to the $25m investment from DL E&C and Doosan, X-energy is continuing to negotiate the terms of a potential incremental investment from additional South Korean investors.

To date, X-energy has raised $148m in financing to support its proposed merger with special-purpose acquisition company (Spac) Ares Acquisition Corporation in a deal valued at around $2bn.

A Spac – also known as a blank-cheque company – is formed to raise money through an initial public offering (IPO) to buy another company. One of the advantages of using a Spac is that the route to a public offering might take a few months, while a conventional IPO process can take anywhere from six months to more than a year.

In May, US-based nuclear reactor developer NuScale used a Spac to go public and begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

In August, X-energy and US-based chemicals company Dow said they plan to collaborate to deploy X-energy’s Xe-100 technology at one of Dow’s US Gulf Coast sites.

X-energy’s Xe-100 high-temperature gas plant SMR is engineered to operate as a single 80-MW unit and is optimised as a four-unit plant delivering 320 MW.

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