A local Texas gulf coast group is calling for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to oppose Long Mott Energy’s construction permit application for small modular reactors in Seadrift, Texas over safety concerns.
Dow and X-Energy submitted their construction permit application, under Dow’s subsidiary Long Mott Energy, to the NRC on March 31.
In an Aug. 11 petition, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper (Waterkeeper) contends Long Mott Energy’s proposed reactors’ physical containment structures do not capture radioactive releases under accident-like conditions, claiming the structures are not meltdown-proof.
It also argued that the subsidiary company does not have the financial means to carry out the proposed plant and relies on Dow, who has no experience in deploying a nuclear reactor, according to its petition.
“[San Antonio Bay Estuarine] Waterkeeper is intervening against the permit to protect the community from radioactive air and water, to avoid becoming a guinea pig for four experimental atomic reactors, to avert wasting money and resources, and to avoid becoming a de-facto permanent high-level radioactive waste dump,” San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper executive director Diane Wilson said in the Waterkeeper Aug. 12 press release.
X-Energy’s project would replace the current energy and steam generation, which is powered by natural gas, with a Xe-100 nuclear plant at Dow’s UCC Seadrift Operations manufacturing site. The construction permit application is currently being reviewed by the NRC and is expected to be completed by November 2026.
The San Antonio-based Waterkeeper, which was founded in 2012, is an environmentalist group that oversees the Calhoun County, Texas area. Waterkeeper is a member of the national network of organizations in the Waterkeeper alliance.