The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recently released an 18-month review schedule for X-Energy’s construction permit application for its advanced nuclear project in Seadrift, Texas.
The NRC provided estimated dates for the Rockville, Md. based nuclear technology company construction permit application’s safety and environmental reviews on June 10.
For the safety review milestones, the agency expects to complete the application’s draft safety evaluation by February 2026, the advance safety evaluation by August 2026, and the final safety evaluation by November 2026.
For the environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact, the NRC expects to complete that review by June 2026.
According to the NRC staff, the schedule was developed in consideration of multiple factors, including the completeness and quality of the application.
X-Energy said in its Monday press release that it has participated in pre-application communication with NRC staff on the Xe-100 design, TRISO-X fuel and topical reports covering other aspects of its technology since 2018.
Xe-100 is a Generation-IV high-temperature gas-cooled reactor that can produce 80 megawatts of electricity. The 80 megawatt reactor can be scaled into a four-pack 320 megawatt power plant, according to X-Energy’s website.
In conjunction with Dow, the two companies, through Dow’s subsidiary company Long Mott Energy, submitted their construction permit application on March 31.
The Long Mott Energy project is being developed in partnership with the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.
“The published review schedule marks the next step in demonstrating how the technology we will be deploying with Dow can be efficiently replicated to meet rising power demand,” X-energy CEO J. Clay Sell said in its press release.
