X-energy secures $500 million in Series C-1 round funding for its Oak Ridge facility
The investment announcement came the same day that the Department of Energy opened applications for up to $900 million in funding to support the initial domestic deployment of Generation III+ SMRs.
And the good news for the nuclear industry in this region just continues!
X-energy Reactor Company LLC, a leader in advanced nuclear reactor and fuel technology, announced on Wednesday a Series C-1 financing round of approximately $500 million, anchored by Amazon.com Inc. The investment will help meet growing energy demands by funding the completion of X-energy’s reactor design and licensing as well as the first phase of its TRISO-X fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge. Additionally, the funding will support future carbon-free projects that will use X-energy’s Xe-100 advanced small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).
The announcement of the Amazon-led funding came on the same day that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) opened applications for up to $900 million in funding to support the initial domestic deployment of Generation III+ small modular reactor (SMR) technologies. DOE plans to use this funding to spur the safe and responsible deployment of advanced reactor technologies across the country and encourage follow-on reactor projects to support the nation’s ambitious climate goals and meeting the growing demand for clean, reliable, and affordable power. The news release is available at this link.
Citadel Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ken Griffin, affiliates of Ares Management Corporation, NGP, and the University of Michigan joined Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund in the financing round for X-energy.
Amazon and X-energy are also collaborating to bring more than 5 gigawatts of new power projects online across the United States by 2039, representing the largest commercial deployment target of SMRs to date. The efforts will help meet growing energy demands in key locations through direct project investments and long-term power purchase agreements to help power Amazon operations. Further, X-energy and Amazon plan to establish and standardize a deployment and financing model to develop projects in partnership with infrastructure and utility partners.
The companies will initially support a four-unit 320-megawatt project with regional utility Energy Northwest in central Washington with the option to increase that project to 12 units and 960 MW. Amazon is immediately committing a direct investment in the Energy Northwest project to fund early development work that X-energy will perform.
“This collaboration between Amazon and X-energy is a significant step toward accelerating advanced nuclear technologies that can help us bring new sources of carbon-free energy to the grid cost-effectively and safely,” said Kevin Miller, Amazon’s Vice President of Global Data Centers. “We need smart solutions that can help us meet growing energy demands while also addressing climate change. X-energy’s technology will be integral in helping achieve this, and is an important step in Amazon’s work to achieve our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero by 2040.”
In early April of 2022, TRISO-X LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of X-energy LLC, announced that it had selected the Horizon Center Industrial Park in Oak Ridge as the site for its commercial advanced nuclear reactor fuel fabrication facility. Described as the nation’s first High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) based fuel fabrication facility, the TRISO-X Fuel Fabrication Facility (TF3) is being commissioned through funding, in part, from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.
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