The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) has granted a Texas environmental group’s petition to intervene in the case surrounding Dow and X-Energy’s construction permit application for Seadrift, Texas.
The ASLB ruling on the intervention petition, which was issued Jan. 22, found that San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper (Waterkeeper) established grounds to intervene in the review of four proposed small modular reactors. ASLB said this is due to financial concerns, Waterkeeper said in its Tuesday press release.
Dow and X-Energy submitted their construction permit application to the NRC last March. The SMR application was filed under Dow’s subsidiary Long Mott Energy, Waterkeeper announced plans to challenge the application in August.
ASLB said the Waterkeeper group successfully raised issues of material fact on Long Mott’s financial qualifications. As a result, further litigation is merited, the board said.
Waterkeeper argues Long Mott Energy has failed to demonstrate its financial qualifications to build and operate the proposed Seadrift SMR plant.