US-based nuclear company X-energy has completed a six-year project that resulted in it finalising the basic design of its Xe-100 high-temperature gas reactor technology and fabricating its first Triso fuel pebbles using natural uranium at a pilot-scale fuel facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the US Department of Energy said.
The technology development project, backed by a $40m award from the DOE, was instrumental in paving a path toward the company’s multi-billion-dollar demonstration project and the nation’s first commercial facility to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (Haleu)-based fuel for next-generation reactors.
The Maryland-based company expects the Xe-100 to be operational by 2028 thanks to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through the newly established office of clean energy demonstrations.
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