The effort to build new U.S. nuclear reactors got a jump this week, with the news that X-energy received federal approval to build four of the company’s advanced small modular reactors at an industrial site in Texas owned by Dow. The Amazon-backed startup’s reactor is the third new model to receive NRC approval this year.
CEO J. Clay Sell said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed its review process ahead of schedule, a good indicator that the industry and government can bring new reactors online more quickly than in the past.
That speed results partly from the ADVANCE Act, signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in 2024, which aims to speed up the notoriously slow licensing and deployment of new reactors. Such federal policy changes, combined with increased financing support and the booming power demand from data centers, have substantially improved the outlook for nuclear after years of arrested development.
The X-energy news is the latest in a string of recent projects, new deals, and financing announced by nuclear startups. In May, NRC gave the Bill Gates-backed startup TerraPower permission to begin construction on its first plant in Wyoming, and in September the commission approved a construction permit for the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a small modular reactor at its Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A number of other companies are operating advanced reactor models in government-supported demonstration projects.
The nuclear industry is pursuing several avenues for getting electrons on the grid in parallel. In addition to advanced reactors, other proposed projects would build more traditional light-water reactors, and work is also underway to restart idle reactors in Michigan and Pennsylvania. But all stand to benefit from new momentum, pushed by huge demand from hyperscalers — even in the coming period of divided government in Washington, D.C. Nuclear has long been among the few low-carbon energy sources that enjoy bipartisan support, Rhodium Group associate director Tess Carter pointed out.
“The momentum is certainly there,” Carter said. “There are a lot of interesting pieces of nuclear legislation pending, which could help things out.”
The Trump administration has set a goal of 10 large reactors under construction by 2030, while also improving the existing fleet to generate an extra five gigawatts from reactors in operation. It has also pumped up financial backing for nuclear projects and has also proposed further streamlining the government’s approval process.
However, Carter and other industry analysts told Latitude Media that many of the structural barriers that have made nuclear power slow and costly remain, and more federal action will likely be needed to unlock more investment and build up the necessary supply chains and pools of specialized labor. And, according to BloombergNEF’s nuclear analyst Chris Gadomski, political support can be especially fickle.
“While nuclear power presents potential opportunities to meet rising electricity demand, questions remain about the pace and scale at which new capacity can realistically be delivered,” Gadomski said. “The momentum for nuclear can change overnight.”
Momentum for modern designs
X-energy is working with Dow to build its Xe-100 reactors at Dow’s Long Mott power station to supply steam and zero-carbon electricity for Dow’s manufacturing operations in Seadrift, Texas, northeast of Corpus Christi.
The Xe-100 is a pebble-bed high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. The design uses tennis-ball-sized spheres (the pebbles) embedded with TRISO fuel particles, all cooled by an inert gas like helium. The company said the reactor’s safety features will greatly reduce the size of the emergency planning zone required around new reactors. Conventional light-water reactors require a 10-mile radius zone. For the Xe-100 the zone is expected to be about 400 yards, allowing the new generation to be sited closer to the point of need.
For more on the challenge of building new nuclear, listen to Elementl Power co-founder David Faherty on the Catalyst podcast:
Several companies have had breakthroughs this year with demonstration projects for advanced reactors. A reactor built by Antares Nuclear reached criticality in June with its reactor test demonstration at the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory, the first non-light-water reactor to reach criticality in over 40 years.
Since then, DOE said, test reactors from Valar Atomics, Deployable Energy, and Aalo Atomics have also reached criticality. Construction on other advanced reactors is underway by TerraPower in Kemmerer, Wyoming, and Kairos Power in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
According to PitchBook, 2026 U.S. investment in new nuclear companies is on pace to eclipse the $6.2 billion record investment last year. Globally, a report from the International Energy Agency projects investment in nuclear energy to grow from about $65 billion per year today to $70 billion per year by 2030.
Lessons from Vogtle
Standard reactor designs are also gaining interest. Late last month a startup called The Nuclear Company announced a proposed nuclear energy campus along the Ohio River in eastern Kentucky that could house up to six Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, generating approximately 6.6 GW.
The Nuclear Company’s CEO, Jonathan Webb, is best known in Kentucky for AppHarvest, a failed venture to grow hothouse tomatoes. But the company also has executives who were part of building the most recent — and largest — addition to the U.S. nuclear fleet: the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia.
Construction of the first Vogtle reactor was plagued by delays and cost overruns, and the lesson is not lost on investors. A November 4 industry overview report from Bank of America described “Vogtle-related scar tissue” as an obstacle to funding new construction.
That said, the researchers also said that Vogtle helped to better define risks for investors, and there is another lesson to be taken from construction of the last two reactors at the site: Vogtle Unit 4 rolled out more smoothly due to lessons learned in the earlier buildouts and the benefits of an established workforce and supply chain. That should change investors’ perceptions, the report’s authors concluded, as “standardization and repeat deployment should progressively reduce execution risk and support lower costs.”
Carter at Rhodium concurred that a full view of the Vogtle experience should ease the path for future AP1000 projects.
“We did at least get to a point to have a skilled workforce that was trained on this particular design, ready to go,” Carter said, adding that NRC now better understands the reactor, making future approvals smoother.
“There’s also a lot of learning about what not to do,” regarding Vogtle, she said. “How to finance these projects, how to protect ratepayers: There’s a lot to be learned there.”
Carter added that state election results in Georgia could make the state more attractive for further nuclear development. A Democratic victory in the race for an open seat on the state’s Public Service Commission flipped party control for the first time in three decades; and incoming members have said they want to prioritize clean energy and the decarbonization of the state’s electric utilities.
Cautionary notes
Carter also has concerns, chiefly around cost. Despite some $200 billion in federal financing authority, she said, cost overruns remain a concern that will likely require more action from Congress.
Not all the advanced reactor projects are off to a flying start, either. In Canada, Ontario Power Generation said its Darlington site project, which would be the first SMR in North America, is over-budget and behind schedule. Canary Media reported that the project will miss its October 2030 target and exceed its $5.4 billion cost estimate.
And the efforts to restart shuttered reactors have also run into money problems.
Axios reported this month on “ballooning costs and repeated delays” at Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan, where Holtec International is working to bring the reactor back into operation; the project is reportedly a year behind schedule, and has both cut hundreds of workers and changed its leadership.
In a Latitude Media profile of Holtec’s Palisades project from last year, government affairs and communications lead Patrick O’Brien emphasized the company’s efforts to control costs.
“That’ll be a key piece of what we do in trying to deploy these and keep the costs as expected and under control, which we know that’s been a challenge for the nuclear industry over the last 40 years, and has sunk some projects,” he said at the time.
Meanwhile, Gadomski at BNEF said “inflation and higher interest rates remain real concerns” affecting the cost of new construction — both advanced and traditional reactors — even if hyperscalers are willing to purchase the power that will come from a new reactor.
Midterm voters rebelled against both high energy prices and the booming data center buildout. Gadomski said the combination of price concerns and possible slowdown in data center energy demand leaves him wary of the nuclear revival’s chances.
“My outlook for nuclear development has become somewhat more cautious following the election, particularly given growing concerns around data centers,” he said.
