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NRC Completes Landmark Safety Review of X-energy’s Xe-100 SMR

XEDOW
  • X-energy announced the completion of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Final Safety Evaluation Report for its Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled reactor.
  • This report marks the completion of both primary reviews required for the NRC to approve a Construction Permit for the proposed Long Mott Generating Station.
  • The NRC staff concluded that the plant design & site provide a sufficient safety basis for construction under 10 CFR Part 50, with support from the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.
  • The Xe-100 design utilizes passive physics from TRISO-X coated particle fuel & a pebble-bed core to enable a 400-meter emergency planning zone, compared to the 10-mile zone for conventional light-water reactors.
  • The NRC review establishes regulatory precedents to support more efficient licensing & replicable pathways for future Xe-100 projects.
  • The project partnership involves Dow & proceeds under the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).
  • The environmental review was completed in May 2026 with an Environmental Assessment & Finding of No Significant Impact.
  • Commercial licensing is supported by pre-application engagement with the NRC since 2018 & decades of DOE research on HTGR technology.
  • The Xe-100 is the first HTGR construction permit application to utilize the NRC's technology-inclusive, risk-informed, & performance-based licensing framework.
  • In the United Kingdom, the Xe-100 was recently accepted into the Generic Design Assessment to advance the licensing process for U.K. deployment.
  • X-energy's technology is currently in commercial projects with Dow, Amazon, & Centrica for grid, industrial, & AI applications.