US Regulator Completes Safety Review of X-energy's Microreactor

Recently, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) formally completed its final Safety Evaluation Report (SER) for the first deployment in Texas of X-energy's Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR).

It is reported that the project is planned for construction at the Longtom nuclear power plant site in Texas, located at the Seadrift operations center owned by chemical giant Dow. X-energy, which is backed by investment from technology and retail giant Amazon, stated that once completed, the plant will become the first grid-scale advanced modular nuclear reactor deployed within a large industrial facility in U.S. history.

In the final Safety Evaluation Report, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted a comprehensive and rigorous review of the Xe-100 reactor's principal design criteria, preliminary design, safety analysis report, probabilistic risk assessment, and related research and development plans, confirming its compliance with national safety standards.

With the core safety review and environmental assessment successively completed, the project is accelerating toward the final issuance stage of the construction permit. The deep involvement of technology giants such as Amazon and the implementation of Dow's industrial energy supply scenario not only expand diversified financing and application pathways for the commercialization of advanced high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, but also provide a new demonstration for the zero-carbon transition of global heavy industry and digital infrastructure.