UK regulators to begin Xe-100 design assessment

The decision was announced exactly a year after British multinational energy and services company Centrica and X-energy Reactor - a subsidiary of X-energy LLC of the USA - signed a Joint Development Agreement to deploy X-energy's Xe-100 advanced modular reactors in the UK. The companies have identified EDF and Centrica's Hartlepool site in the north-east of England as the preferred first location for a planned UK fleet of up to 6 GWe. 

Generic Design Assessment (GDA) is a voluntary process through which the UK's nuclear regulators - the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales - assess the safety, security and environmental implications of new reactor designs intended for deployment in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), separately from applications to build them at specific sites. Successful completion of the three-step GDA culminates in the issue of a Design Acceptance Confirmation from the ONR and a Statement of Design Acceptability from the Environment Agency.

The ONR said the GDA will begin "once the necessary arrangements around timescales and resources have been put in place". X-energy UK Holding Ltd is also currently engaging with UK regulators as part of a Tier 3 Preliminary Design Review on selected topic areas of the Xe-100 design, the regulator noted.

X-energy submitted its application to enter the GDA process for the Xe-100 in June. GDA acceptance formally triggers the process of assessing the design’s acceptability for deployment and operation ahead of the technical and environmental evaluations required for site-specific licensing and permitting, which is expected to take about three years. 

The submission builds on the Xe-100's US licensing progress and is expected to benefit from expanded collaboration between the UK regulators and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), X-energy said, enabling NRC-reviewed design documentation and safety analyses into UK design reviews. The NRC has been actively engaged in pre-application activities with X Energy since September 2018.

Over the past year, the partners have carried out early project activities including formal Early Engagement with UK nuclear regulators as well as the submission and subsequent acceptance of the Xe-100 into GDA process. They have also submitted a proposal for entry into the UK Government's Advanced Nuclear Pipeline, a register of privately led advanced nuclear projects seeking deployment in England or Wales that the government has assessed and believes are, in principle, sufficiently mature and could credibly be delivered in the UK, subject to regulatory and government approvals. The results of that submission are imminent, the companies said. 

"Across both sides of the Atlantic, X-energy is advancing fleet-scale deployment of our technology, and it begins with a strong regulatory foundation that enables us to drive efficiency from the first project to a full commercial fleet. Together with Centrica, we are advancing the development work required to move from a first project at Hartlepool to a fleet of Xe-100 plants across the country," X-energy CEO Clay Sell said. "The UK has the industrial capability, nuclear expertise and policy ambition to lead the deployment of advanced nuclear technology, and we are committed to building the partnerships and supply chain needed to deliver that opportunity."

Centrica CEO Chris O’Shea said the milestone shows the "tremendous progress" made by the partnership in just 12 months.  "Without energy security, we don’t have true national security. Nuclear has a critical role to play in this," he said. 

"Deploying advanced nuclear technology at scale, with up to 6GW of new capacity across the UK, will not only strengthen our energy security, but it will create tens of billions of economic value and thousands of highly skilled jobs. 

"Starting at Hartlepool, we want to help build a resilient, low-carbon energy system that can power homes and industry for decades to come."

The partnership has already engaged a range of specialist firms to commence site studies and planning and consenting activities, and collaborated with local bodies in Hartlepool to support workforce development and training, including the launch of a new Nuclear and Electrical Trades Academy. 

The Xe-100 is a Generation IV advanced reactor design producing an output of 80 MW of electricity, or 200 MW thermal. A standard 'four-pack' configuration would allow for total power output of 320 MWe, scalable to up to 12 units per site. The Xe-100 uses tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel, which has additional safety benefits because it can withstand very high temperatures without melting, and can provide both electricity and process heat. X-energy is advancing its initial Xe-100 plant in the USA with Dow Inc on the Texas Gulf Coast, and is also developing a further plant with Energy Northwest in collaboration with Amazon, to build up to 12 units near Energy Northwest's Columbia Generating Station in Washington State.