X-Energy Leaps Ahead with $700M in Series D Funding

• X-Energy Leaps Ahead with $700M in Series D Funding
• Vattenfall Invests $42 Million in New Nuclear for Sweden
• Dutch Government Prepares To Build Four New Nuclear Reactors
• Japan Will Offer Loans to Finance Nuclear Power Projects
• Asian Development Bank to Invest in Nuclear Energy
• General Atomics Completes Concept for New Fast Reactor Design
• Westinghouse And Google Partner Using AI To Speed Up Nuclear Construction

X-Energy Leaps Ahead with $700M in Series D Funding

X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC, a developer of advanced nuclear reactor and fuel technologies, announced it has closed an oversubscribed Series D financing round of approximately $700 million led by Jane Street. X-energy expects to utilize proceeds from the round to help continue the expansion of its supply chain and commercial pipeline. (TRISO fuel element. Image: X-Energy)

Additional new investors include ARK Invest, Galvanize, Hood River Capital Management, Point72, Reaves Asset Management, XTX Ventures and various others, as well as existing investors including Ares Management funds, Corner Capital, Emerson Collective, NGP, Segra Capital Management and others.

Prior Funding Supports Current Development Efforts

X Energy, LLC in April 2024 awarded a $148.5 million tax credit for the construction by its wholly-owned subsidiary, TRISO-X LLC an advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility, TX-1, in Oak Ridge, TN. Funded by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the award is part of the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit program jointly administered by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the Internal Revenue Service.

In addition to ARDP funding, the U.S. Department of Energy also awarded X-energy $9 million in 2018 to support the initial design of the company’s fuel fabrication facility that later evolved into TX-1.

TRISO-X anticipates regulatory approval from the NRC by May 2026 and recently received approval from the Department to spend an additional $30 million to secure long-lead procurement items to adhere to the overall project schedule.

In October 2024 X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC announced a Series C-1 financing round of approximately $500 million, anchored by Amazon.com, Inc. Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin, affiliates of Ares Management Corporation (Ares), NGP, and the University of Michigan join Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund in the financing round.

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.

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 investment includes manufacturing capacity to develop the SMR equipment to support more than five gigawatts of new nuclear energy projects utilizing X-energy’s technology.

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.

Order Book Pipeline

X- Energy has plans to build four of its 80 MW HTGR design SMRs at the DOW Seadrift Operations manufacturing site located on the Texas Gulf Coast. X-energy has received updates from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regarding the construction permit application for the initial deployment of the Xe-100 advanced reactor. The proposed project is being developed by The Dow Chemical Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Long Mott Energy LLC.

Citing the completeness and quality of the application, and the effectiveness of pre-application engagements, the NRC published an 18-month review timeline for the Texas Gulf Coast project and will concurrently proceed with its environmental assessment. Since 2018, X-energy has led and participated in extensive pre-application engagements with NRC staff on the Xe-100 design, TRISO-X fuel, and topical reports covering numerous aspects of the company’s technology

Another deal is to build up to five and as many as 12 of the SMRs for Amazon at a site adjacent to the Columbia Generating Station in Washington by the end of the 2030s. The reactor is operated by Energy Northwest. The utility has signed an MOU to operate the SMRs once they are built.

In Washington, Amazon’s agreement with Energy Northwest, a consortium of state public utilities, will enable the development of four advanced SMRs. The reactors will be constructed, owned and operated by Energy Northwest, and are expected to generate 320 MW of capacity for the first phase of the project, with the option to increase to 960 MW total.

Additionally, X-energy is partnered with British multinational energy and services company Centrica to deploy 6 GW in the United Kingdom. The project includes plans to build up to 12 of the 80 MW HTGR SMRs. Centrica will provide initial project capital for development with the goal of initiating full-scale activities in 2026.

Subject to regulatory approval in the U.K., the first electricity generation would be expected in the mid-2030s. Centrica and X-energy are in discussions with additional potential equity partners, as well as leading global engineering and construction companies, with the goal of establishing a UK-based development company to develop this first and subsequent projects.

Fuel Fabrication Plant Under Construction in Oak Ridge, TN

X-energy is building an advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, TN, to manufacture its proprietary TRISO-X fuel. Earlier this month X-energy announced the start of vertical construction for its $300 million TX-1 fuel fabrication facility. The facility will manufacture the company’s proprietary TRISO fuel for its commercial reactors.

Located within the Horizon Center Industrial Park, the 110-acre TRISO-X campus is situated on land that was formerly part of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was part of a tract released in 1996 for private development to help diversify the region’s economic base. TRISO-X acquired the campus from the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board in 2022.

TX-1 will be the first of two facilities planned for the site to fabricate the company’s ceramic fuel designed to withstand extreme temperatures and retain fission products under all reactor conditions.

The fuel will be enriched to 19.5% U235. TRISO-X utilizes more energy dense high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) that allows for longer periods of operation. X-Energy manufacturs a proprietary product to enrure supply and quality control.

The group will start building the shell of the 214,812 square foot facility at the Oak Ridge site that will be used to fabricate  700,000 TRISO fuel pebbles each year, which is enough fuel for 11 Xe-100 small modular reactors. X-Energy said full employment at the plant will be 500 people.

Located within the Horizon Center Industrial Park, the 110-acre TRISO-X campus is situated on land that was formerly part of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was part of a tract released in 1996 for private development to help diversify the region’s economic base. TRISO-X acquired the campus from the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board in 2022.

First Allocation of HALEU from DOE

In April 2025 X-energy and its wholly owned subsidiary TRISO-X LLC announced an allocation of High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy’s HALEU Allocation Program.

“This first allocation is a critical step forward to bridge the HALEU availability gap in the nuclear supply chain with existing material,” said TRISO-X president Joel Duling.

“Coupled with the HALEU Availability Program and other efforts, we expect the commercial sector to further bridge the availability gap to support the delivery and scalability of the advanced reactor fleet.”

The allocation is part of X-energy’s participation in DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program and will be delivered in the first core loads of fuel in partnership with Dow Inc. at their UCC Seadrift Operations manufacturing site.

The two companies recently announced the submission of a construction permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the proposed Xe-100 plant at Seadrift, with the potential to begin construction later this decade and start up early next decade.

X-Energy TRISO Fuel Irradiation Testing Underway at INL

Pebbles of TRISO-X fuel have begun 13 months of irradiation testing at Idaho National Laboratory to evaluate fuel performance across operating scenarios and qualify them for commercial use. Over a 13-month trial, the experiments will evaluate fuel performance under different power levels, temperatures and burnup scenarios, which are essential for meeting Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards for commercial use in advanced reactors, including X-energy’s Xe-100 small modular reactor. Once testing is complete, post-irradiation examination will begin at INL and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Vattenfall Invests $42 Million in New Nuclear for Sweden

• Up to five small modular reactors being planned for existing Ringhals site

(NucNet) Swedish state-owned power company Vattenfall and the industrial consortium Industrikraft have signed an agreement for joint investment and collaboration that will enable the next steps in a project to deploy new nuclear power in Sweden.

Vattenfall said in a statement that Industrikraft will become a 20% shareholder in the nuclear project company Videberg Kraft and invest $42 million in the project.

Vattenfall and Industrikraft, formed in June 2024 to support the expansion of Swedish non-fossil fuel electricity supply, will work on the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) at Vattenfall’s existing Ringhals nuclear site on the Värö Peninsula, southwest Sweden.

The agreement covers project management and selection of technologies. Vattenfall said Swedish technology has a role to play in driving the development of a strong supplier cluster in Europe.

In August Vattenfall said it will proceed with US-based GE Vernova (GEV) and British company Rolls-Royce SMR as it looks to choose a potential supplier for new nuclear power plants next to Ringhals.

Vattenfall said at the time final investment decisions will be made “later in the process”.

It said both companies offer SMRs with proven technology and simplified designs that have integrated learnings from previous nuclear projects worldwide. Both use fuel for which Vattenfall has established supply chains.

GEV’s technology is the 300-MW BWRX-300. Construction of the first BWRX-300 unit is underway at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington nuclear site near Toronto in Canada.

Rolls-Royce SMR is developing a 470-MW unit. The company has been selected by the British government as the preferred bidder to develop SMRs for the UK.

Vattenfall is planning a project with either five BWRX-300 plants for a total capacity of 1,500 MW or three Rolls-Royce SMR plants for 1,410 MW.

The company also said it is already looking at the next step to build an additional 1,000 MW of SMR capacity at the Ringhals site, where two large-scale reactors are in operation and two have been permanently shut down.

The company said building a series of smaller units as opposed to single, large-scale reactors, brings clear cost advantages. SMRs require less space, need significantly fewer personnel, and lead to more manageable logistics.

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Dutch Government Prepares To Build Four New Nuclear Reactors

The incoming Dutch government has backed plans to more than triple the funds earmarked for the expansion of the nuclear sector. This plan would bring the total planned investments in the nuclear sector up from $4.9 billion to $15.2 billion, marking a significant increase in funding.

The Dutch government has started the assessment process for two new nuclear projects, with Borssele and Eemshaven being designated as possible locations for the new nuclear facilities. The government said its involvement in the nuclear plans is preferable to private sector investment due to the uncertain nature of nuclear projects including schedule and cost issues.

In December 2022 the Dutch government chose the Borssele site as its preferred location for the proposed construction of two new 1,000 MW+ nuclear units.

The government said the units should be deployed by 2035, each have a capacity of between 1,000 MW and 1,650 MW, and use Generation III+ reactor technology.

Earlier this year, the Dutch government established the Nuclear Energy Organization Netherlands (NEO NL) to facilitate the construction of the planned new nuclear power plants, marking a long-term involvement and commitment from the state. The new organization will be responsible for the entire process of developing the nation’s nuclear new reactors.

The government said it is considering two nuclear facilities to include small modular reactors, or SMRs, as they are significantly cheaper to construct, install, and operate than a larger conventional nuclear reactor. This would be a first for the European continent, as it has no small modular reactors in operation in the EU.

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Japan Will Offer Loans to Finance Nuclear Power Projects

• Government-backed loans would work with private investment as Tokyo backs reactors

(NucNet) Japan will introduce a loan support program to aid public investment in nuclear power plants and major transmission projects. The news was confirmed by the Tokyo-based industry group the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF), which said that under the plan loans would be provided through the government’s Organization for Cross-Regional Coordination of Transmission Operators.

The loans would be granted as co-financing agreements between private institutions and the state, with the government recognizing its part in supporting the development of nuclear power projects.

JAIF said that Japan had been encouraged to follow the path of other governments which provide loan guarantees and other public investment to ensure that nuclear projects were viable and spread the risk more equitably.

At a press conference Ryosei Akazaka, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), said, “With electricity demand expected to grow, we will take a hard look at whether private financing alone is sufficient for large-scale investments in decarbonized power sources and transmission networks.”

“We intend to deepen discussions on institutional frameworks and legal amendments that make effective use of the government’s creditworthiness.”

Japan’s new prime minister Sanae Takaechi has publicly supported the revival of nuclear power, with the aim of reducing the country’s reliance on fuel imports.

At present, 14 of the country’s 33 commercially available nuclear power plants have been restarted following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The government plans to restart additional reactors and finish several that were under construction at the time of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

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Asian Development Bank to Invest in Nuclear Energy

• The multilateral development bank has amended its energy policy, paving the way for it to support developing member countries that choose to pursue nuclear power.

(WNN & IAEA) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a new agreement on 11/25/25 to strengthen cooperation in support of countries across Asia and the Pacific that are exploring nuclear energy as part of their long-term energy and development strategies. Discussions will include identifying potential projects for collaboration, including those involving small modular reactors.

The agreement was signed by the IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and the ADB President Masato Kanda in Manila, Philippines at a meeting of the the ADB’s Board of Directors. The Board revised its energy policy to support nuclear power, including investment measures for the first time as a pathway for decarbonization.

As part of the new policy, it has signed an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to cooperate in supporting countries in Asia and the Pacific who are exploring nuclear energy as part of their energy and development strategies.

The Asian Development Bank’s move to consider funding nuclear energy projects follows a similar one between the IAEA and the World Bank earlier this year.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masato Kanda said: “These changes further enhance ADB’s ability to support countries in Asia and the Pacific as they work to meet their rapidly growing energy needs. Nuclear power, for example, is an important technology option for countries looking for reliable alternatives to baseload electricity.”

“With ADB’s updated energy policy recognizing nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels for baseload generation, this agreement ensures that developing member countries choosing this path do so with robust safeguards, strong governance and a clear commitment to sustainability.”

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, who attended the announcement with Kanda, said, “As ADB opens the door to financing nuclear power, we will move quickly to identify practical areas of collaboration that respond to rising energy needs of countries across the region … our teams will now begin shaping concrete initiatives that deliver reliable, low-carbon energy and strengthen resilience for millions of people.”

“It further broadens that international momentum, strengthening support for countries that are turning to nuclear energy to enhance energy access, security and resilience”.

The memorandum of understanding with the IAEA will see the two “collaborate to build knowledge and technical capacity across the full nuclear life cycle. Key areas of cooperation include energy planning, the management of nuclear fuel cycles and radioactive waste, and nuclear facilities’ life-cycle management. The IAEA will also support informed decision-making by providing guidance on safety, security, safeguards, and stakeholder engagement.”

Founded in 1966 and owned by 69 member states, including 50 from the region, ADB committed $3.8 billion to energy projects in 2024. It says it aims to support “inclusive, resilient, and sustainable growth across Asia and the Pacific.”

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General Atomics Completes Concept for New Fast Reactor Design

• The fast modular reactor (FMR) design is one of three early-stage concept projects the Department of Energy supported under its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

General Atomics has demonstrated feasibility of their fast modular reactor (FMR) design through various modeling and lab-scale tests to verify the performance of key safety systems, fuel, and operations — allowing the firm to start maturing the technology to a preliminary design phase for potential demonstration in the 2030s. Completed work also included the fabrication of sample fuel rods that match the design intended for use in the FMR.

The company is developing a gas-cooled modular reactor that can be made in factories and assembled on-site to deliver 44 MW as little as 0.2 acres of land.

The reactor is designed to pair with an air-cooling system for potential deployment in remote or arid locations and runs on silicon carbide-wrapped high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel that can withstand temperatures twice as high as fuel claddings currently used in light-water reactors. 

The FMR’s conceptual design work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy through an Advanced Reactor Concepts 2020 (ARC-20) award, part of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. 

Funding supported General Atomics’ strategic partnerships with other companies, academia and national laboratories to successfully verify the technical feasibility of the FMR design, helping to progress the advanced reactor design in its early phase.

Dr. Christina Back, Vice President of General Atomics said, “The ARC-20 program has supported critical advances in the gas-cooled fast reactor concept and demonstration of robust materials that enable an added layer of safety, while still enabling operation without the need for a water source. These features facilitate siting and compatibility for small communities and diverse applications, including the recycling of used nuclear fuel.”

What’s Next?

General Atomics has submitted their Principal Design Criteria and the Quality Assurance Plan Description licensing documents to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The NRC also docketed several pre-application FMR documents that will be referenced in the future license application when General Atomics submits future formal licensing documents. 

The proposed Fast Modular Reactor (FMR) is designed to generate 44 megawatts of firm electricity. The system utilizes silicon carbide-wrapped high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel.

With the completion of the conceptual design, General Atomics is moving to the preliminary design phase. Future planned activities include safety-related testing, and work to further develop fuel, materials, and power conversion system components. Work will lead to the final design phase, which will include construction, non-nuclear tests, and receiving HALEU for fuel fabrication.

The prototypes of the FMR fuel rods fabricated during the conceptual design process are undergoing irradiation testing at Idaho National Laboratory to experimentally verify their integrity. 

This technology, referred to as SiGA, utilizes a silicon carbide composite material intended to form the basis of fuel rods capable of withstanding temperatures exceeding the limits of currently used materials. The multilayer composite cladding structure is designed to provide high-temperature resilience for both current and future reactor systems.

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Westinghouse And Google Partner Using AI To Speed Up Nuclear Construction

• Early pilot of technology shows significant time and cost savings

(NucNet) Westinghouse announced a partnership with Google Cloud to develop a custom AI-powered platform using specialized models that help optimize and accelerate the construction of nuclear power plants. Google said in a statement that early pilots of the platform have shown significant time and cost savings. The companies are also exploring ways for AI to help enhance nuclear operations and safety.

The core AI innovation targets the construction process, which historically represent 60% of reactor costs. Until recently, construction management relied on spreadsheets and paper documents, leading to delays that cascaded across thousands of interdependent tasks.  Westinghouse turned decades of documentation to its advantage by loading them into an AI application.

The new AI system combines the companies’ AI models and prediction tools with Westinghouse’s WNEXUS, a 3D digital twin of its reactors. When combined with current and historic data, the system can predict bottlenecks, optimize construction task sequences, adjust staffing levels and account for external factors like supply chain constraints.

The optimization technology for new reactor construction is built using a “technology brick approach”, said Lou Martinez Sancho, Westinghouse’s chief technology officer and executive vice-president of R&D and innovation. He added that this means the technology has applications far beyond the initial project.

Google’s AI tools are being applied to reduce licensing processes and operations timing. By finding the fastest path through maintenance and refuelling tasks, the AI helps minimize reactor downtime.

Westinghouse CEO Dan Sumner has stressed that AI-driven decision-making optimization is essential to making nuclear power a viable investment for utilities and addressing energy urgency.

The company has already established its own proprietary AI infrastructure, Hive, designed specifically to meet the nuclear sector’s stringent regulatory and export-control frameworks. It also developed Bertha, a generative AI assistant that instantly accesses 75 years of nuclear knowledge and documentation at Westinghouse. The firm said that early use of the AI tools showed positive results in terms of reducing construction costs.

Google has increasingly looked towards nuclear energy as a key power source for its operations. In October, the company signed a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement with NextEra Energy to offtake power from its 615MW Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo, Iowa. The agreement will support restarting the plant, which has been shuttered since 2020.

Raiford Smith, Google Cloud’s global director of Power & Energy, noted that energy now “underpins economic growth, data-center expansion and 24/7 carbon-free goals.”

Google has signed several nuclear energy deals. These include a 200 MW PPA with Commonwealth Fusion Systems for fusion power, a 50 MW PPA with SMR reactor firm Kairos Power, and a strategic agreement with Elementl Power to develop three nuclear energy projects in the US. The location and timing of these projects are still to be determined.

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