Nuclear

Energy Northwest aims to bring Washington’s first small modular reactor online by 2030

The Xe-100 project is expected to be developed at a site near Columbia Generating Station in Richland.
Energy Northwest aims to bring Washington’s first small modular reactor online by 2030
(A rendering of the Xe-100 reactor. Source: X-energy.)

Utility company Energy Northwest and small modular reactor developer X-Energy have signed an agreement to bring multiple Xe-100 SMRs to central Washington state. Energy Northwest said it expects to bring the first Xe-100 module online by 2030.

The project includes the potential deployment of “up to 12 Xe-100 advanced small modular reactors” capable of generating up to a 960 MW of electricity.

The Xe-100 project is expected to be developed at a site controlled by Energy Northwest adjacent to Columbia Generating Station in Richland. Energy Northwest owns Columbia Generation Station, which is the only commercial nuclear energy facility in the region. The agency also owns and operates hydroelectric, solar, battery storage and wind assets.

X-energy’s Xe-100 SMR is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. The Maryland-based company said its SMR can address a broad range of uses, including applications that currently rely on fossil fuels to produce steam and heat for processes like manufacturing, petroleum refining and hydrogen production.

Each Xe-100 module can provide 80 MW of electricity or 200 MW of high-temperature steam, according to X-energy.

Energy Northwest and X-energy have discussed plans for an Xe-100 facility in central Washington since 2020. At one point X-energy’s goal was to have an operational unit by 2028, starting with a 320 MW four-unit Xe-100 power plant in the state.

In May 2023, Dow selected its UCC Seadrift Operations manufacturing site on the Texas Gulf Coast for X-energy’s first Xe-100 deployment as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).

Through the ARDP X-Energy was awarded $1.2 billion in federal cost-shared funding to develop, license, build and demonstrate an operational advanced reactor and fuel fabrication facility by the end of the decade.

Tags