Commercial scale production ‘key to enabling the deployment of advanced reactor designs’
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has granted a 40-year commerical licence to advanced nuclear reactor developer X-energy subsidiary Triso-X to produce fuel using high-assay low-enriched uranium (Haleu) at a facility that is being built in the state of Tennessee.
The NRC said in a statement that this marked the first-ever US approval of a category II fuel fabrication facility and would allow X-energy to use Haleu at a facility known as TX-1, under construction in Oak Ridge in the southern US state. A second facility, TX-2, is in the design phase.
The licence will allow Triso-X to produce a form of tri-structural isotropic fuel developed by the company that will be used for future small modular reactor (SMR) plants that it will develop.
The licence was welcomed by the NRC as building for the future of new nuclear in the US.
“Commercial-scale production of this fuel is key to enabling the deployment of advanced reactor designs,” said NRC chairman Ho Nieh. “This licence represents an important milestone that supports the Department of Energy’s program to accelerate deployment of nuclear technologies and deliver more power to the grid.”
According to X-energy, the company has a commercial pipeline to develop 11 GW of energy, equivalent to 144 of its Xe-100 SMRs.
The company said that when the two fuel facilities were in operation, it would provide a stable source of its Triso fuel.
“Regulatory approval brings us one step closer to a resilient, American fuel supply for next-generation nuclear technology, advancing our energy security by closing a longstanding gap in the US nuclear fuel cycle,” said Joel Duling, president of Triso-X.
The company said that commercial licencing of the fuel followed almost 10 years of fuel development that began at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Reactor Deployment Plans For Dow’s Seadrift Site
The NRC licence also included security, safety and environmental reviews. A final inspection of the facility will be conducted when it is ready for operation.
X-energy is planning to deploy its first Xe-100 SMR at chemical company Dow Inc’s UCC Seadrift Operations in the state of Texas.
The Xe-100 is a Generation IV high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, interest in HTGRs is increasing because they can provide efficient and cost-effective electricity and produce high-temperature process heat usable for various industrial applications.
Each Xe-100 reactor is designed to produce 80 MW of electricity or 200 MW of process heat using Triso particle fuel, known for its high safety performance. The reactors are expected to operate for up to 60 years.
Triso fuel is composed of small spheres of enriched uranium that are coated with multiple layers of carbon and ceramic materials, forming a robust shell that can withstand high temperatures. Compared to the fuel used by the operating fleet, Haleu has a higher percentage of U-235, the form of uranium that is able to sustain a chain reaction.
