The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently issued a final safety evaluation report for advanced reactor developer X-energy’s first planned small modular reactor in Seadrift, Texas, completing its environmental review.
According to X-energy’s Oct. 30 press release, NRC staff reviewed the company’s Xe-100 plant’s principal design criteria, safety analyses and other safety aspects and recommended that the commission issue the company a construction permit. NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguard, independent of the commission, also reviewed and supported NRC staff’s conclusion, according to the release.
The issuance of the final safety evaluation report comes months after NRC staff completed the Texas small modular reactor project’s environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact in May. As of Monday, the commission has not made a decision about whether it will issue the permit or not.
“Licensing a new reactor is earned through the quality of the application and the rigor of the regulator’s review,” said Dragan Popovic, chief global operating officer at X-energy. “The NRC’s completion of its safety review reflects years of disciplined work by our team and the NRC staff, establishing the foundations to support every Xe-100 application that follows on the path to scale.”
X-energy’s construction permit was filed under Dow’s subsidiary Long Mott Energy in March 2025 and seeks to build a four-reactor plant using Xe-100 SMRs. The proposed plant will be used to generate electricity for Dow’s UCC Seadrift Operation manufacturing facility, which is currently powered by natural gas.
The Xe-100 reactor design is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor with a generating capacity of 80 megawatts of electricity. X-energy said it has been engaging with NRC for its SMR technology since 2018. It also said its reactor design is based on the Department of Energy’s research on high-temperature gas-cooled reactors.
X-energy’s Texas SMR project is being financially supported by DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which promotes research, development and demonstration of advanced reactor projects.
