NRI Annual Review 2024 - Flipbook - Page 37
to comprise four units together,
using TRISO ceramic-coated
fuel. It is under development as
part of the US Advanced Reactor
Demonstration Program, which
targets the deployment of at least
two advanced reactors before the
end of the decade. Workstreams
and funding focus on: the nonrecurring engineering and design
of the XC100; the 昀椀rst phase of
commercial fuel deployment
in the US for that reactor; and,
lastly, the commercialisation
of the reactor. X-Energy are
targeting operations in 2029 for
a four-unit plant.
TRISO fuel itself is a coated
particle fuel, with tri-structural
isotropic layers which form a
containment vessel, obviating
the need for a large concrete
structure. This TRISO structure
guarantees that the fuel, after
昀椀ssioning, retains the by-products
inside one-millimetre diameter
particles that are packed into
pebbles about the size of billiard
balls. Placed in the bed of the
reactor core, these pebbles
number around 220,000 and are
made of graphite, which cannot
melt. Consequently the fuel
cannot melt, which prevents the
release of dangerous amounts
of 昀椀ssion products, even in the
worst-case accident scenario.
X-Energy are on track for this
facility to be operating in 2026,
with license in 2025.
The main political issue around
new nuclear in the US, however,
is that no decision has yet
been taken on where the 昀椀nal
repository for nuclear fuel will
be, although the US Government
holds the legal title to that fuel
and is responsible for it when it
leaves a reactor site. Given the
time that such a decision will
inevitably take, X-Energy’s siting
design allows for at least 60 years
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37
The majority of
nuclear liability
conventions allow
for the possibility
of setting a
lower amount of
nuclear liability for
certain types of
installations that
do not produce
the same level
of risk...
