SMRs | COVER STORY
Left: X-Energy’s Xe-100 high temperature gas-cooled reactor could be deployed at Dow Chemical sites
X-Energy is part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE)
Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) and will receive $1.2bn in cost shared funding from DOE over the life of the ARDP effort. Now it has signed a joint development agreement (JDA) with US chemicals conglomerate Dow to use X-Energy’s Xe-100 high temperature gas-cooled reactor for process heat and electricity. The JDA scope includes the preparation and submission of a Construction Permit application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). X-energy is said to be preparing to submit a license application to the NRC. They plan to build X-Energy’s first unit at a Dow industrial
site – one of several the company has along the gulf coast in Louisiana and Texas. A site is expected to be chosen by the end of this year. Dow represents a fleet deployment opportunity in itself
– it operates manufacturing sites in 31 countries where the Xe-100 could be used to decarbonise operations. It may join forces with X-Energy to license the technology to other industrial customers as well as to power utilities. X-Energy had previously been in discussion with Energy Northwest and Grant County in Washington state, which would now have follow-on units.
Are we there yet? Clearly, the Polish market will be a kick-starter for the industry. That presents its own risks: the European market for new and existing nuclear is made more problematic because some of Poland’s fellow EU members are opposed to any type of nuclear power and will object to it. Equally, however, EU members would like to see Poland able to close its coal industry and clean up its energy industry as a whole and that may benefit SMRs. What about the large number of other technologies
competing to roll out? It is likely that their opportunity will come after mass deployment of the leading options have created market ‘pull’. If the model of a small-scale reactor that is used on an industrial site is familiar to investors and to the public, it lowers those risks to deployment and can allow a new technology to be presented to an investor comfortable with accepting risk. Again, the battery market is instructive. Mass deployment of lithium ion batteries has developed both the supply
chain for delivery and installation and the skill set for making returns for investors. Now the ‘market pull’ is there, attention has turned to the next technology. A recent analysis from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says “sodium ion batteries are more expensive than lithium ion today because of low volumes and underdeveloped supply chains. But BNEF sees potential for material savings and energy-density improvements that would provide a viable pathway for sodium ion cells to cost half what lithium iron phosphate does today”. The nuclear industry is grappling with deploying SMRs but two or three versions are showing the characteristics that have been successful for other asset classes. The technology is relatively familiar, while the small size of units mean they will be deploying in 10s, rather than singly. The question will be whether that can step up to the hundreds or thousands, to gain the true benefits of replication. That may see promising designs fall by the wayside – but that is an experience familiar across asset classes, when falling costs due to replication overtake a technology that would, on paper, look more economic. In that case experience suggests the broader energy industry and the investment community will “not let the best be the enemy of the good” and take a pragmatic decision: familiarity wins. ■
Above: A BWRX-300 station will be built at Darlington NPP in Ontario
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