X-energy just landed another billion-dollar vote of confidence from the US government. The Department of Energy is directing $1 billion in funding toward XE’s small nuclear power plant project in Texas, a move that cements the company’s position as one of the most heavily backed players in the small modular reactor race.
The funding flows through the DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), which first tapped X-energy back in October 2020 with an initial $80 million seed allocation. With this latest tranche, total federal commitment to the project sits at approximately $1.23 billion.
What XE is actually building
The project centers on X-energy’s Xe-100 reactor, a high-temperature gas-cooled design that falls into the small modular reactor category.
X-energy plans to install four Xe-100 units at Dow Inc.’s UCC Seadrift Operations facility in coastal Texas. Each unit would generate 80 MWe, bringing total plant capacity to 320 MWe. The plant would supply zero-carbon electricity and process steam to Dow’s chemical operations, replacing aging fossil-fuel systems.
