Texas becomes epicenter of nuclear energy effort with new project
By Mike Christen – Staff Writer, Austin Business Journal
There is an ambitious effort underway to introduce small-scale nuclear reactors for commercial purposes, and Texas' Gulf Coast has become the epicenter of the initiative.
Maryland-based X-energy LLC is slated to install its modular, helium-cooled reactor technology at the Dow Inc. plant in Seadrift, between Corpus Christi and Houston, which produces more than 4 million pounds each year of materials used in packaging, footwear, wire and cable insulation and solar cell membranes.
X-energy said installing its modular nuclear reactor at the 4,700-acre Dow plant will be the first example in the U.S. of a small-scale nuclear reactor powering a commercial operation. It expects to produce more than 400 megawatts of energy for the site — a standard that has only been realized overseas in Russia and China.
The project, solidified in May, is anticipated to begin operation by the end of the decade. When completed, it is expected to reduce the plant’s carbon dioxide emissions by an equivalent measure of 440,000 metric tons annually, a step by Michigan-based Dow toward achieving goals of carbon neutrality by 2050 and reducing carbon emissions by 30% by 2030.
"It will be the first one in the Western world," X-energy CEO Clay Sell said on a visit to Austin.
Clay hopes it will offer an alternative to the traditional nuclear power options seen in Texas, which has power plants in operation at Comanche Peak Power Plant near Fort Worth and the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station near Bay City along the Gulf Coast.
While this activity is taking place on the Gulf Coast, it's worth watching for large industrial users in Central Texas, especially those with significant power needs. X-energy pledges to provide a clean source of energy entirely independent of the state's power grid.
"I've always believed that this day was coming," Sell said, who was deputy energy secretary in the George W. Bush administration and now resides in Dallas. "It's going to be transformative to the Texas economy. As we build this brand new industry, it's going to start here in Texas, and Texas always leads in energy. We will see the University of Texas and Texas A&M to produce, not just the nuclear engineers, but the mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and business executives to build out not just these plants, but the supply chain associated with it."
The International Energy Agency has determined that nuclear energy production would need to increase 80% globally by 2040 to stay on track with sustainability targets, including international climate goals.
At the coastal site, X-energy will install four of its Xe-100 modular reactors. Each unit is designed to produce 80 megawatts of energy, fueled by the company's baseball-sized uranium fuel kernels, encased in layers of pyrolytic carbon, silicon carbide and porous carbon.
"This technology is a game changer because of its safety," Sell said. "We will build a plant that is physically impossible to melt down. Among the things that this safety case gives us is the ability to operate on a very small footprint."
A portion of the reactors will be construed by Fort Worth-based Paragon Energy Solutions LLC.