This year marks the 7th annual National Clean Energy Week, creating a unique opportunity for X-energy and many others to recognize the critical role clean energy sources and technologies play in addressing our country’s environmental, economic, and national security needs.
Nuclear is a critical part of the transition to a cleaner energy future, already holding the spot as the largest source of clean power in the United States. X-energy is working to lead the way in bringing advanced nuclear reactors to market and delivering this important energy source in new and innovative ways. So why is nuclear, particularly X-energy, the clean fuel of choice for today and tomorrow? We’ve outlined several of these reasons below.
1. Clean Energy is Safe
Nuclear power plants are among the safest and most secure facilities in the world and are constantly modernizing and improving their technologies to deliver on the promise of a safer clean energy future.
X-energy’s Xe-100 advance nuclear reactor is designed to be a safe, carbon-free, always-on and load-following generation source. The simple and intrinsically safe design significantly expands the applications and markets for nuclear technology with enhanced safety, lower cost and faster construction timelines when compared with conventional nuclear energy sources and broader use cases when compared with other SMRs.
X-energy’s reactors use TRISO particle fuel, a technology that has been developed and improved over 60 years. The DOE describes TRISO particles as “the most robust nuclear fuel on the planet.” Our TRISO-X fuel is designed not to melt. Its robust nature allows for passive safety and, we expect, a small emergency planning zone, providing additional flexibility in site design and access to non-traditional nuclear markets.
2. Clean Energy is Versatile
In order to meet both current and future energy demands here at home and around the world, nuclear technology has evolved into a more versatile energy source to meet the needs of both electricity in homes and businesses as well as high-temperature heat and steam to refine chemicals and manufacture essential products across the economy
Nuclear reactors are widely known for their ability to provide uninterrupted power. However, they also offer operational flexibility, as current reactors designs can ramp power output up or down in order to balance grid demand. X-energy’s small modular reactors increase this versatility by significantly shrinking the footprint needed to create carbon-free baseload power.
A great example of this versatility can be seen in X-energy and Dow’s small modular reactor nuclear project in Seadrift, Texas. The four-reactor facility will take up just 30 acres on Dow’s 4,700-acre property, delivering carbon-free power and steam and reducing Dow’s CO2 emissions by approximately 440,000 MT CO2e/year.
3. Clean Energy is Secure
Having a strong nuclear energy industry is critical to our national energy security. It promotes energy leadership across the globe and ensures that the U.S. has a resilient and growing carbon-free electric grid.
A strong and secure nuclear sector is essential to U.S. national security and diplomacy, and we remain a reliable partner when it comes to nuclear energy. By maintaining global nuclear leadership and building relationships with other countries, the U.S. and other nations can increase both their energy and climate security. These relationships also open the door to new opportunities for America’s nuclear technologies.
Additionally, advanced nuclear facilities are designed to protect against all types of circumstances, from natural disasters to terrorist attacks. They are extremely resilient, built to withstand extreme conditions and can generate electricity when other energy resources are unavailable or fail in even the most severe conditions.
4. Clean Energy is Reliable
According to the DOE, nuclear is the most reliable sources of energy available. Nuclear has by far the highest capacity factor, with power plants producing maximum power more than 92% of the time during the year.
The Xe-100 is designed to operate without the need for refueling outages, thanks to its pebble fuel cycle, in which fuel pebbles are added and removed as needed, while the core continues to operate at high temperature.
Finally, unlike some renewable energy resources that rely on wind, sun, or water, advanced small modular reactors can provide a consistent baseload of electric power, independent of weather conditions. The Xe-100 continuous fuel cycle design allows it to deliver power an anticipated 95% of the time, making it noticeably more reliable than the average fossil fuel plant and far more reliable than wind and solar plants.
Clean Energy is Nuclear
Clearly, nuclear energy is critical to meeting the goals of a clean-energy economy. With its combination of safe, versatile, secure, and reliable factors, nuclear energy is a mainstay of a diverse and reliable electric grid. This National Clean Energy Week and beyond, we recognize that nuclear energy is an essential part of the clean energy mix and celebrate all that nuclear energy can do to power our way of life and accelerate the momentum around clean energy.
