Fluor Joins X-energy's Plans to Build SMR Nuclear Powering Dow Manufacturing
Small modular reactor designer X-energy has signed up a significant engineering and assessment partner in its plan to build an SMR nuclear plant to power Dow’s materials manufacturing operations on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor Fluor signed an agreement with X-energy to deliver front-end loading stage 2 (FEL-2) services for the proposed next-gen nuclear facility. X-energy and Dow currently are seeking federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to build the SMR plant to replace gas-fired generation in powering the Seadrift chemicals manufacturing site.
Fluor’s FEL-2 services focus on project definition, strategic planning, feasibility assessment, cost control and risk mitigation. X-energy has proposed developing four 80-MW SMR reactor units to provide carbon-free and baseload power for Dow’s 4,200-acre Seadrift operations.
“X‑energy’s technology offers a powerful pathway for small modular reactors to deliver safe, reliable and fit-for-purpose baseload power in an industrial setting,” said Pierre Bechelany, Fluor’s Business Group President of Energy Solutions, in a statement. “With eight decades of nuclear experience, Fluor brings the proven expertise and disciplined execution required to help advance this landmark project.”
Fluor Corp. is one of the nation’s long-term EPC contractors around both nuclear and fossil power plant construction, as well as nuclear decommissioning, refineries and industrial processing sites. It also is the EPC contractor for the uranium enrichment plant expansion led by owner Centrus Energy in Ohio.
The Seadrift project is expected to become a grid-scale advanced nuclear reactor deployed to serve an industrial facility in North America. Dow’s UCC Seadrift operations produce more than 4 billion pounds of materials annually for applications including food packaging, footwear, wire and cable insulation, solar cell components, and medical and pharmaceutical packaging.
Dow and X-energy hope to start construction on the Seadrift power plant later this year and bring it into commercial operation by 2030.
X-energy, which also signed a future project deal with Amazon, has started above-ground construction on its advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
X-Energy Reactor Co. and wholly owned subsidiary TRISO-X are working to fabricate X-energy’s proprietary tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) fuel. This fuel would power X-energy’s proposed deployment of the Xe-100 reactor in partnership with the Dow on the Texas Gulf Coast.