Clark moves X-energy’s US nuclear fuel plant into next construction phase

TX-1 nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (Photo: Clark Construction)

This will include construction of auxiliary buildings, and the commencement of interior buildout and equipment installation.

“This next phase of construction marks an important transition point as we move toward installing the systems and equipment that will make the facility operational,” said Joel Duling, president of TRISO-X.

Clark Construction Group will continue as construction contractor into this next phase, leading the interior build-out of the 214,000 sq. ft. facility’s process equipment and administration building, as well as the installation of fuel fabrication equipment and the construction of an adjacent graphite matrix powder building.

The plant is expected to be the first commercial facility in the US dedicated to fabricating tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) fuel for advanced reactors, supporting X-energy’s first proposed deployment of its Xe-100 in partnership with Dow, Inc. through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

Once operational, the facility is expected to produce 700,000 TRISO-X pebbles per year, or 5 metric tons of uranium (MTU), with the ability to provide enough fuel for up to 11 Xe-100 reactors, according to the X-energy subsidiary.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has granted TRISO-X a 40-year special nuclear material licence for the plant, the first-ever NRC Category 2 nuclear fuel facility licence to process High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) and is expected to be the first new commercial-scale US nuclear fuel fabrication facility in over 50 years.