This Texas chemical plant could get its own nuclear reactors

It’ll beryllium years earlier atomic reactors volition really crook on, but this exertion marks a large milestone for the project, and for the imaginable of precocious atomic exertion to powerfulness concern processes.

“This has been a agelong clip coming,” says Harlan Bowers, elder vice president astatine X-energy. The institution has been moving with the NRC since 2016 and submitted its archetypal regulatory engagement program successful 2018, helium says.

In 2020, the US Department of Energy chose X-energy arsenic 1 of the awardees of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which provides backing for next-generation atomic technologies. And it’s been 2 years since X-energy and Dow archetypal announced plans for a associated improvement statement astatine Dow’s works successful Seadrift, Texas.  

The Seadrift works produces 4 cardinal pounds of materials each year, including integrative utilized for nutrient and pharmaceutical packaging and chemicals utilized successful products similar antifreeze, soaps, and paint. A natural-gas works onsite presently provides some steam and electricity. That instrumentality is getting older, truthful the institution was looking for alternatives.  

“Dow saw the accidental to regenerate end-of-life assets with safe, reliable, lower-carbon-emissions technology,” said Edward Stones, an enforcement astatine Dow, successful a written connection successful effect to questions from MIT Technology Review.

Advanced atomic reactors designed by X-energy emerged arsenic a acceptable for the Seadrift tract successful portion due to the fact that of their quality to present high-temperature steam, Stones said successful the statement.

X-energy’s reactor is not lone smaller than astir atomic plants coming online contiguous but besides employs antithetic substance and antithetic cooling methods. The plan is simply a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, which flows helium implicit self-contained pebbles of atomic fuel. The substance tin scope temperatures of astir 1,000 °C (1,800 °F). As it flows done the reactor and astir the pebbles, the helium reaches up to 750 °C (about 1,400 °F). Then that blistery helium flows done a generator, making steam astatine a precocious somesthesia and unit that tin beryllium piped straight to concern instrumentality oregon converted into electricity.

The Seadrift installation volition see 4 of X-energy’s Xe-100 reactors, each of which tin nutrient astir 200 megawatts’ worthy of steam oregon astir 80 megawatts of electricity.

A installation similar Dow’s requires an highly accordant proviso of steam, Bowers says. So during mean operation, 2 of the modules volition present steam, 1 volition present electricity, and the last portion volition merchantability energy to the section grid. If immoderate azygous reactor needs to unopen down for immoderate reason, determination volition inactive beryllium capable onsite powerfulness to support running, helium explains.

The advancement with the NRC is affirmative quality for the companies involved, but it besides represents an accomplishment for precocious reactor exertion much broadly, says Eric Cothron, a elder expert astatine the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, a nonprofit deliberation tank. “It demonstrates real-world momentum toward deploying caller atomic reactors for concern decarbonization,” Cothron says.

While determination are different companies looking to bring precocious atomic reactor exertion online, this task could beryllium the archetypal to incorporated atomic powerfulness onsite astatine a factory. It frankincense sets a precedent for however caller atomic vigor technologies tin integrate straight with industry, Cothron says—for example, showing a pathway for tech giants looking to powerfulness information centers.

It could instrumentality up to 2 and a fractional years for the NRC to reappraisal the operation licence exertion for this site. The tract volition besides request to person an operating licence earlier it tin commencement up. Operations are expected to statesman “early adjacent decade,” according to Dow.