The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued TRISO-X a special nuclear material license, allowing the company to use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) at its fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
TX-1 and TX-2, X-Energy’s commercial fuel facilities, are the first such facilities licensed by the NRC in 50 years, the company said last week. TX-1 is set to become the first Category 2 nuclear fuel facility.
The two facilities were issued an initial 40-year license by NRC. TX-1 will be operated by X-Energy’s subsidiary company TRISO-X. When TX-1 is completed, then the license enables the commercial facility to produce tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel, according to X-Energy’s Feb. 13 press release.
A Category 2 fuel fabrication facility is a facility licensed to possess special nuclear material of moderate strategic significance, according to NRC. These facilities include HALEU fuel cycle plants.
“Achieving this first-of-its-kind license reflects the technical leadership and sustained diligence of the TRISO-X team, as well as a focused process with the NRC to complete the review three months ahead of schedule,” TRISO-X President Joel Duling said. “We look forward to continuing our work to bring commercial-scale TRISO production to East Tennessee.”
X-Energy previously said it expected regulatory approval for the TX-1 facility to come in May 2026 and production to start by December 2027.
TRISO-X’s TX-1 facility is the first of two planned at X-Energy’s site at DOE’s Oak Ridge Site. The 110-acre site at the Horizon Center in Roane County, Tenn., next to the federal site will manufacture TRISO fuel for the company’s first commercial Xe-100 reactor in Texas, as well as future reactors, X-Energy said.
In November 2025, the Oak Ridge fuel fabrication facility began construction and that current phase of the project is expected to be completed by mid-2026.