X-Energy Lands DOD’s 2nd Contract for Project Pele

• X-Energy Lands DOD’s 2nd Contract for Project Pele
• X-energy and Ares Acquisition Corp Add Cash to the Joint Effort
• Holtec Signs Power Purchase Agreement In Bid To Restart Palisades Nuclear Plant
• Turkey Closes in on Deal with China For New Reactors
• UAE’s Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp Signs MOU with Poland’s ORLEN Synthos Green Energy
• Hyundai E&C, Poland Bolster Partnerships in Nuclear Power
• Indonesia / Pertamina NRE and Seaborg Set MOU for Floating Molten Salt Reactors

X-Energy Lands DOD’s 2nn Contract for Project Pele

X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC, a developer of advanced small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) and fuel technology for clean energy generation, and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced an agreement to an expansion of a contract under the department’s Project Pele initiative to develop a transportable, cost-effective advanced nuclear mobile microreactor prototype for use in remote military locations.

X-energy’s expanded contract is intended to provide the department with a second microreactor design sought through Project Pele, while also providing a commercial pathway for the adoption of microreactor technology in other applications.

X-energy expects to further develop the design of its prototype through an award of $17.49 million within the scope of an existing contract with the DOD which has been underway for the past two years. It is expected that the micro reactor design intended for military electrical supply applications could ultimately be used for civilian commercial or industrial uses.

This contract option for one year of work by X-energy will not result in a completed engineering design, but will allow a thorough analysis of design options, leading to a preliminary engineering design and initiation of a regulatory preapplication process that will likely progress on dual tracks – one with DOE/DOD and one with the NRC.

X-energy will initiate pre-licensing engagement with the NRC, in order to enable a broad range of  commercial deployment possibilities to decarbonize off-grid, remote, or small-scale grid resiliency needs for customers.

X-Energy has not yet said where it would build its micro reactor for DOD. Most likely, it would be at a DOE national lab or a DOD military base consistent with its intended military uses and licensing profile.

DOD Explains Why it Wants Two Designs

“Due to their extraordinary energy density, nuclear reactors have the potential to serve multiple critical functions for meeting resiliency needs in contested logistical environments,” said Dr. Jeff Waksman, Project Pele program manager.

“By developing two unique designs, we will provide the Services with a broad range of options as they consider potential uses of nuclear power for both installation and operational energy applications in the near future.”

Waksman participated in an ANS webinar in August to provide an update on Project Pele together with Joe Miller, president of BWXT Advanced Technologies.

X-Energy’s reactor design under the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, the XE-100, is an 80 MW HTGR.  The firm recently inked an agreement with DOW to build four of them at a DOW chemical manufacturing plant located at a south Texas coastal site.

For DOD’s Project Pele, the resulting Xe-Mobile design is expected to be capable of producing of 2–7 MWe of electrical power at full-power operations for over three years; can be transported by rail, truck, and sea in components housed in cargo containers; would use TRISO fuel; and provides multiple voltage outputs. This would enable rapid transport and use in isolated environments, including islands or the arctic.

The Project Pele plant will be a single prototype to only be demonstrated within the US, and under the safety oversight of the Department of Energy (DOE), as part of a “whole-of-government effort” involving the DOE, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the US Army Corps of Engineers.

The department’s Strategic Capabilities Office (“SCO”) launched Project Pele in 2019 to develop a fourth-generation nuclear microreactor to deliver reliable, carbon-free energy to support remote and austere environments. X-energy was one of two teams selected from a preliminary design competition to deliver a final design to the department in 2022.

The DOD estimates that it uses approximately 30 Terawatt-hours of electricity per year and more than 10 million gallons of fuel per day. These are levels of energy the department expects to increase due to anticipated electrification of the vehicle fleet and for future energy-intensive capabilities.

Safe, small, transportable nuclear reactors are expected to help address this growing demand with resilient, carbon-free energy sources that do not add to the DOD’s liquid fuel needs and associated logistics challenges, while supporting mission-critical operations, and tactical readiness, in remote environments.

“We learned a tremendous amount while working through the first phase of Project Pele with subject matter experts at the Department of Defense,” said Harlan Bowers, X-energy president, who led the project team during the initial phase of work.

BWXT Project Pele Contract Award

In a press statement SCO noted that it previously selected BWX Technologies, Inc. of Lynchburg, Virginia to build a prototype micro reactor. This work is underway and long lead hardware fabrication has begun for the BWXT reactor. By executing this contract option with X-energy, SCO seeks to develop a complementary micro reactor design that builds upon X-energy’s developments completed under Project Pele in 2022.

The BWXT-designed prototype microreactor is a high-temperature gas-cooled plant fuelled by tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). It will operate at between 1-5 MW and will be transportable in commercially available shipping containers.

In April 2022 BWXT said it would build its micro reactor for DOD at the Idaho National Laboratory. Jeff Waksman, the Project Manager for DOD, said testing of the BWXT prototype could begin as early as 2024 with operation to begin the following year.

The reactor will be fabricated off-site then moved to INL for low-power initial testing at the National Reactor Innovation Center’s (NRIC) facility for Demonstration and Operation of Microreactor Experiments (DOME).

After the initial testing phase is completed the reactor will be moved to a more remote, independent grid at INL equipped with transmission and communication lines. Fuel will be loaded in the reactor and it will be tested for all aspects of its intended operation.

BWXT Technologies is manufacturing the fuel, under a $37 million government contract, which INL plans to purchase for microreactor demonstrations. BWXT firm will create the TRISO fuel by down blending highly enriched fuel (HEU) originally fabricated for DOD missions at the Y-12 site.

The fuel is made of tristructural isotropic particles (TRISO), enriched to 19.7% U235, each of which contains a kernel of uranium, carbon and oxygen that is wrapped up in three layers of carbon- and ceramic-based materials.

DOD and DOE will handle the licensing of the reactor which will be limited to providing power for military bases and which will not wheel power to the regional grid. Commercial versions of the micro reactor spun off from Project Pele would have to go through the NRC’s safety design review and licensing processes to be offered by reactor vendors to commercial customers.

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X-energy and Ares Acquisition Corp Add Cash to the Joint Effort

X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC Ares Acquisition Corporation (NYSE:AAC), a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, announced strategic updates to their previously announced business combination.

• Ares Management Corporation has committed to a Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) investment comprising  $50 million of convertible preferred stock in the combined company.
• X-energy Founder and Executive Chairman, Kam Ghaffarian, Ph.D., has agreed to contribute approximately $30 million to repay certain of X-energy’s outstanding debt and will receive an additional approximately $30 million of PIPE shares upon the closing of the transaction.
• In connection with the investments, X-energy and AAC have amended the terms of their business combination agreement to revise X-energy’s pre-money equity value to $1.05 billion from $1.8 billion.

The PIPE investment and contribution are anticipated to close in connection with the completion of the business combination. When combined with Ares’ existing $30 million investment funded shortly after the transaction announcement in December 2022, Ares will have invested a total of $80 million in X-energy upon the closing of the business combination.

Combined with X-energy’s $103 million C-2 private financing and cash-in-trust, this additional capital is expected to deliver approximately $534 million to the combined company. The additional capital will help accelerate the development and deployment of X-energy’s advanced technology.

Kam Ghaffarian, Ph. D., Founder and Executive Chairman of X-energy, said, “The additional investments from Ares and myself provide added capital to help accelerate X-energy’s ability to deliver advanced small modular nuclear reactor technology. We are committed to aligning ourselves with shareholders and the updated valuation underscores that alignment.”

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Holtec Signs Power Purchase Agreement in Bid to Restart Palisades Nuclear Plant

(NucNet contributed to this report) Holtec’s Palisades Energy has signed an agreement with Wolverine Power Cooperative to buy power predicated on the re-opening of the the single-unit Palisades nuclear power station in Michigan. The companies did not say how much the agreement was worth or how long it was for.

The agreement contains a contract expansion provision to include up to two small modular reactors (SMRs) that Holtec intends to build and commission at the site.

Holtec has previously said its first SMR, a 160 MW PWR, would be built at the former Oyster Creek nuclear plant site located on a site along the southern New Jersey Atlantic ocean shoreline. Holtec is currently holding prelicensing meetings with the NRC for its SMR. No date has been set the for firm to submit a license application for any site.

According to the long-term power purchase agreement, Wolverine Power Cooperative, a not-for-profit energy provider to the rural communities across Michigan, is committing to purchase up to two-thirds of the carbon-free power generated by the Palisades plant for its Michigan-based member rural electric cooperatives. Wolverine’s nonprofit rural electric cooperative project partner, Hoosier Energy, will purchase the balance of the electricity to be generated by the plant.

“The restart of Palisades offers a practical, long-term solution to electric reliability in our state and aligns with Michigan’s ambitious goals to reduce carbon emissions,” said Wolverine chief executive officer Eric Baker.

Kelly Trice, president of Holtec Nuclear Generation and Decommissioning, said the power purchase agreement represents a significant milestone in the company’s efforts towards reopening the plant.

Holtec is still working to get a federal loan approved the US Department of Energy’s loan programs office to re-start Palisades. The firm declined to give an update on the status of the loan application. Separately the State of Michigan recently approved budget includes $150 million to support the restart of Palisades.

The plant, on the shore of Lake Michigan in Covert Township, began commercial operation in 1971. Holtec International, an energy technology company headquartered in Florida, bought Palisades in 2022 to decommission the 805MW pressurized water reactor facility, which had struggled to compete with natural gas-fired plants and renewable energy.

Holtec initially planned to repurpose the site once decommissioning was complete. However, the Biden administration’s $6 billion of aid for upgrading nuclear facilities in the US led the company to reconsider its plans.

In November 2022 the Department of Energy rejected Holtec’s application for federal financial aid to reopen the plant. The DOE decision was most likely based on the numerous problems the plant faced on a path to being reopened

Reuters reported that Palisades was out of nuclear fuel, faced a control rod drive seal issue that needed to be fixed, needed a new company to operate it as well as a buyer for the power it generates. A major issue is that the NRC would have to relicense the plant once it completed address these needs.

Another issue is that Holtec isn’t a nuclear utility and needs to find one to operate the plant once it was on its way to a restart. The power purchase agreement doesn’t specify who will operate the reactor.

Even if DOE had come through with the money, relicensing the plant presented a major challenge to Holtec and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The agency public affairs office said in an email statement to this blog that the agency has never dealt with a plant that involves re-licensing a closed nuclear reactor. However, in 2016 the agency took a look at the possibility of restarting a closed reactor and solicited input from the industry to address the issue.

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Turkey Closes in on Deal with China For New Reactors

(NucNet contributed to this report) Turkey said it is closing in on an agreement with China for construction of a new nuclear power station with talks likely to become final within month according to English language news media report in Ankara. Negotiations for the project have been ongoing since 2016 but only recently picked up speed.

China has previously proposed building several 1400 MW PWRs based on the design of the Westinghouse AP1000. However, since then China has developed the 1000 MW Hualong One, a domestic PWR design and will likely offer that reactor to be built at the site in Turkey. According to Bloomberg, Chinese officials recently visited the likely site of the future station, on Turkey’s western Black Sea west coast near the borders with Bulgaria and Greece.

Turkey’s Energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar told reporters at a press conference: “We’ve been in talks with a Chinese company for a very long time,” adding that any differences are not major obstacles. “So, we will be able to fill the gaps and strike a deal soon with China for the nuclear power program.”

Supplying multiple 1000 MW PWR type Hualong One plants to Turkey would represent a significant commercial advance for China’s nuclear sector and its export ambitions. An agreement to build one in the UK was terminated by then PM Boris Johnson on security grounds.

If built it would be Turkey’s third nuclear site and second committed project to build nuclear reactors there. Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear energy export ministry, is building four 1200 MW VVER at the Akkuyu site on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Akkuyu will see the first unit expected to come online in 2025 and a further unit starting every year afterwards. It is a showpiece for Rosatom’s export efforts.

However, in Turkey Rosatom has not been able to attract outside investors for the plants for a 49% share neither from Turkish firms nor from international sources. The rate for electricity from the Russian plants is currently pegged well above the government subsidized cost of electricity from power plants burning natural gas, and a lot of it also comes from Russia. Localization of the supply chain to Turkish firms for the Akkuyu project has been substantial being valued at about $5 billion.

Four similar reactors are being built under very favorable financial terms in Egypt at a coastal site west of Cario. Egypt is only expected to pay 15% of the cost of the four reactors.

A third nuclear reactor site for Turkey, located at Sinop on Turkey’s northern Black Sea coast, originally was to include four 1100 MW PWRs from a Mitsubishi/Areva consortium. The project did not proceed due to concerns from Turkey about the costs of building first of a kind units. The subsequent withdrawal of Japanese investors effectively terminated the project.

Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom and South Korean companies are interested in building the second nuclear power station at Sinop. Bayraktar said Turkey is seeking more local participation from whatever vendor wins the business. He did not disclose a timeline for selecting a vendor and EPC for the Sinop project.

Bayraktar said the government is also open to building small modular reactors (SMR’s) with the UK, US, and France, but the reactors must be able to be licensed and come with substantial local production of the supply chain. He added that Turkey could add 5 GWe of small modular reactors to its system if these conditions can be met.  So far no sites have been named for the SMRs.

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UAE’s Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp Signs MOU with Poland’s ORLEN Synthos Green Energy

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and ORLEN Synthos Green Energy (OSGE) have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support the decarbonization of the Polish and European power sector and industry, by looking into opportunities to invest in small modular reactors (SMRs).

The MOU aims to provide both parties with an enabling framework for developing SMRs based on GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s BWRX-300 SMR technology in Poland and the United Kingdom, as well as within Central and Eastern Europe.

The framework agreement was signed by Mohamed Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Managing Director & CEO, ENEC and Rafal Kasprów, CEO, ORLEN Synthos Green Energy, during the World Nuclear Symposium 2023 in London, U.K.

World Nuclear News reported from London that OSGE is planning to build and operate Poland’s first SMR power plant by the end of this decade, and to launch further units in the 2030s.

As a partner of GE-Hitachi, the Polish company has exclusive rights to use BWRX-300 technology in Poland, and is also cooperating with Ontario Power Generation and the Tennessee Authority Valley, which have also chosen to deploy BWRX-300 technology in projects in Canada and the US.

ENEC will share the experience learned from the development of the Barakah Plant, its experience in building operational readiness, and stakeholder management, including building commercial frameworks with technology vendors and other contractors.

Al Hammadi said, “This MOU sets the stage for our plans to accelerate nuclear adoption globally and lend our expertise in advancing the clean energy transition towards achieving Net Zero. The development of the Barakah Plant in the UAE is a catalyst for innovation and R&D in new areas, including SMRs which, we are currently exploring as part of our future growth opportunities, alongside other next-generation technologies.”

ENEC’s expertise, through building and operating the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, is supporting the growth of nuclear energy as a source of abundant clean electricity to tackle the dual challenges of energy security and climate change. All of the UAE reactors are 1400 MW PWRs. The UAE does not have its own SMR design.

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Hyundai E&C, Poland Bolster Partnerships in Nuclear Power

Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., a major affiliate of South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co., is boosting its networks in the nuclear power construction sector of Poland.

It signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Polish Association of Construction Industry Employers on September 12th to collaborate in building nuclear energy plants. The two parties will share information on the Polish construction industry and exchange technologies to win nuclear power projects together.

Hyundai E&C also signed an agreement with Poland’s National Center for Nuclear Research on the same day for research and development. They will join to study nuclear power safety, develop nuclear reactors for research and share technologies through exchanges between the two countries’ professionals.

The Korean firm will set up an office in Warsaw and use it as a base from which to advance into the Eastern European market.

Hyundai E&C said the new office will partner with Poland’s major construction companies Erbud Group and Unibep S.A. to join projects involved in building a new airport in the capital, city infrastructure and smart city systems. Hyundai E&C is also expanding its presence in the petrochemical and nuclear power sectors in Poland via its affiliate Hyundai Engineering Co.

The affiliate signed an MOU in July with Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. (USNC) of the US and Grupa Azoty Zaklady Chemiczne Police S.A. of Poland for joint development of nuclear power, including micro-modular reactor (MMR).

The three companies will cooperate in the implementation of USNC’s MMR technology in the chemical industry, energy system construction and the use of zero-emission nuclear power to produce hydrogen.

South Korea’s Nuclear Energy Beachhead in Poland

In November 2022  South Korea’s KHNP, with a promise of an equity investment in the project, signed MOU with Poland’s PGE PAK Energia to build four APR1400s at a site to be determined in Poland. However, on  August 16,2023, the size of the project was cut in half  to two APR1400s.

The company’s presidents announced that a power plant consisting of two APR 1400 reactors with a total capacity of 2.8 GW will be built in 2035 in the Pątnów-Konin region in Wielkopolska about 160 miles due south of Gdansk. It will satisfy 12% of Poland’s current demand for energy. By the end of 2023 an agreement is to be reached on the establishment of a joint special purpose joint effort between Polish companies and a Korean technology supplier.

Jakub Rybicki, president of PGE PAK Energia Jądrowa said, “We are starting negotiations with our Korean partner regarding the feasibility study, agreements on financing our project and the creation of a Polish-Korean company that will directly lead this process.”

According to the Polish Press Agency, 20% of the project would be financed by capital and 80% by loans. On the South Korean side, financing would be provided by the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim), South Korea’s export credit agency.

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Indonesia / Pertamina NRE and Seaborg Set MOU for Floating Molten Salt Reactors

• Pertamina NRE and Seaborg ApS sign an MOU to explore the potential deployment of the compact molten salt reactor (cmsr) power barge in Indonesia.

PT Pertamina Power Indonesia (Pertamina NRE) and Seaborg ApS have entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) where both parties intend to explore and assess how the next generation nuclear power technology could be utilized both to meet Indonesia’s future clean energy demand.

The parties aspire to use the assessment to scope an initial project where the commercial deployment of the CMSR Power Barge is feasible and commercially viable. Followed by the initial project results, potential follow-up projects will be considered. The utilization of the energy could be for power to the grid, directly to industry and e-fuel production comprising hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol.

Based on the results of the studies, further collaboration such as the development and deployment of CMSR Power Barge with a capacity between 200 MWe and 800 MWe will be considered. Although the economics have yet to be finalized, an estimated investment of 1–3 billion USD would be required which would lead to significant contributions of CO2 reduction towards the Government of Indonesia’s net zero ambitions to be achieved by 2050 as well as other potential economic multipliers.

Once the project has matured to investment ready, both parties intend to attract foreign direct  investments to realize the project.

​About Pertamina NRE

PT Pertamina Power Indonesia (Pertamina NRE) is a subsidiary of PT Pertamina (Persero), Indonesia’s largest energy company, comprised of four business entities: PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (subsidiary), PT Jawa Satu Power (affiliate), PT Jawa Satu Regas (affiliate), and PT Industri Baterai Indonesia. Its business focuses on three pillars; low carbon solutions, renewable energy, and new & future business. It is committed to supporting Indonesia’s net zero emission 2060 and implementing ESG.

About Seaborg ApS

Seaborg ApS is a Danish nuclear energy company that delivers a new, safe nuclear technology based on a molten salt reactor design. The company’s mission is to provide clean, safe, and reliable power generation to meet the growing demand for sustainable energy worldwide.

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