US TRISO-X TX-1 Advanced Nuclear Fuel Facility Enters Next Construction Phase

TRISO-X, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-energy, announced on August 24 that its TX-1 advanced nuclear fuel manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has entered the next construction phase. With the vertical structure of the facility nearing completion, the project will transition to auxiliary building construction, interior finishing, and equipment installation.

The facility is positioned as the first commercial facility in the United States dedicated to producing tristructural isotropic fuel for advanced reactors, and will provide fuel support for X-energy's Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled reactor in the future. X-energy is collaborating with Dow to advance the first deployment of the Xe-100 reactor.

TRISO-X stated that the next construction phase will focus on installing the systems and equipment required for facility commissioning. Clark Construction Group will continue to serve as the construction contractor, responsible for interior finishing of the process equipment area and administrative office building, installation of fuel manufacturing equipment, and construction of the adjacent graphite-based powder facility at the approximately 214,000-square-foot site.

According to the plan, once TX-1 is operational, it is expected to produce 700,000 TRISO-X fuel pebbles annually, with a uranium loading of approximately 5 metric tons, capable of meeting the fuel demand of up to 11 Xe-100 reactors. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a 40-year special nuclear materials license to the TRISO-X facility. This license is the first of its kind issued by the NRC to a Category 2 nuclear fuel facility capable of processing high-assay low-enriched uranium; the facility is also expected to become the first new commercial-scale nuclear fuel manufacturing facility built in the United States in more than 50 years.

Recently, TRISO-X has continued to advance its presence in Oak Ridge. The company extended its cooperative research and development agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), acquired 70 acres of land for expansion of its Horizon Center campus, and received economic development funding from the State of Tennessee to support the expansion of fuel manufacturing operations.

On the reactor project front, X-energy is advancing the first four-unit Xe-100 project at Dow's UCC Seadrift industrial manufacturing site on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Once completed, the project is planned to provide electricity and industrial steam to the site. X-energy is also collaborating with Energy Northwest and advancing a second project, the Cascade advanced energy facility, with Amazon. Under previous collaboration arrangements, X-energy and Amazon plan to drive the construction of more than 5 gigawatts of new power projects by 2039.