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.
