Energy Northwest and X-Energy Reactor Partner Up to Deploy Carbon-Free Electricity

Saturday - August 19 2023, 01:08 UTC - 1 year ago

Energy Northwest and X-Energy Reactor Company have a joint development agreement for up to 12 Xe-100 advanced small modular reactors in central Washington, capable of generating up to 960 megawatts of carbon-free electricity. X-energy has also received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2021 under the ARDP to develop and build an operational advanced reactor, with their first deployment of the Xe-100 at the UCC Seadrift Operations manufacturing site on the Texas Gulf Coast. The Xe-100 technology is expected to be more efficient and compatible with larger industrial manufacturing systems, and is designed to provide up to 200 megawatts of high-temperature steam.

Energy Northwest, a premier provider of carbon-free electricity, and X-Energy Reactor Company ("X-energy"), a leading developer of advanced small modular nuclear (pebble bed fission) reactors and fuel have a joint development agreement for up to 12 Xe-100 advanced small modular reactors in central Washington capable of generating up to a total of 960 megawatts of carbon-free electricity. Energy Northwest expects to bring the first Xe-100 module online by 2030 .

Energy Northwest owns or operates numerous clean energy generating facilities throughout the Northwest region of the United States, including Columbia Generating Station in Richland, which is the only commercial nuclear energy facility in the region. Under the JDA, the Xe-100 project is expected to be developed at a site controlled by Energy Northwest adjacent to Columbia Generating Station. The Xe-100 can operate for 60 years without stopping to refuel .

There will be 200,000 fuel pebbles constantly being fed through the system. China has built and started operating a similar dual module 200 megawatt pebble bed reactor. Small modular reactors with 80 MWe of power each enable utilities to build a module at a time for less than $1 billion instead of spending $10 billion or more for a 1 gigawatt reactor. Each Xe-100 module can provide 80 megawatts of full-time electricity or 200 megawatts of high-temperature steam .

X-energy’s innovative and simplified modular design is road-shippable and intended to drive scalability, accelerate construction timelines and create more predictable and manageable construction costs. The Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology can power a broad range of applications through its high-temperature steam output that can address the needs of large regional electricity providers as well as industrial manufacturing systems .

In May 2023, Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) selected its UCC Seadrift Operations manufacturing site on the Texas Gulf Coast for X-energy’s first deployment of the Xe-100 as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program ("ARDP"). X-energy was awarded $1.2 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2021 under the ARDP in federal cost-shared funding to develop, license, build and demonstrate an operational advanced reactor and fuel fabrication facility by the end of the decade .