X-energy is a company that develops advanced nuclear reactor fuels. Centrus is a company that specializes in nuclear fuel technology. These two companies have announced that they are cooperating in the construction of a nuclear fuel fabrication facility. This facility will create fuel for X-energy reactors and other advanced nuclear power reactors. The terms of the Memorandum of Understanding that the two companies signed include preparing a plan for the deployment of X-energy TRISO fuel, designing a competitive and highly automated fuel manufacturing line and seeking funding for a future commercial fuel production facility.
The CEO of X-energy said, “X-energy is focused on both our high temperature gas-cooled reactor development and the fuel needed to power our reactors. The Department of Energy has spent close to $400M in developing and qualifying the UCO TRISO particle in preparation for advanced reactor commercialization. X-energy, in partnership with Centrus and taking advantage of its domestic enrichment experience and engineering know-how, is anxious to evaluate how we can together move UCO TRISO into final fuel form production, benefitting many in the industry.”
The Centrus CEO said, “Our technical and engineering teams are eager to help X-energy develop TRISO fuel for their reactor. We agree that American leadership in the global nuclear market requires that we develop an end-to-end domestic capability, from high-assay low-enriched uranium enrichment through fuel production, for next-generation reactors.”
X-energy’s Tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) fuel is a type of micro fuel particle. It has a kernel of Uranium Oxycarbide enriched to about sixteen percent U-235. The kernel is about a millimeter in diameter. This core is surrounded with carbon and ceramic layers. These layers prevent the release of radioactivity. Then eighteen thousand of these TRISO particles are embedded in a graphite sphere called a pebble. Each TRISO particle maintains its own integrity regardless of the integrity of the pebble and traps the fission products produced by the fission reaction. About two hundred thousand of these pebbles are used to fuel an X-energy pebble bed reactor. The graphite around the pebble moderates the fission reaction.
The X-energy Xe-100 pebble bed reactor is cooled with helium gas. The heat generated by the reactor can be used for applications that require process heat or it can be converted to electricity by a helical coil steam generator. The Xe-100 can produce about seventy six megawatts of power. One advantage of pebble bed reactors is that they cannot melt down so it would be safe to locate them near a densely populated area. The small size and safety makes them a good choice for applications where a full-sized light-water reactor would not be appropriate. Pebble bed reactors are one of six types of reactors known as Generation IV.
X-energy has a design to integrate four Xe-100 reactors to produce three hundred megawatts of power. This “four pack” would only require about thirteen acres for a site. All the components of the Xe-100 reactor can be delivered by truck so the reactors would be assembled at the site from modular parts.
