The US Department of Energy has committed an additional $1 billion in funding to X-Energy's small modular reactor project in Texas, reinforcing the company's standing as a leading beneficiary of federal support in the advanced nuclear sector.

The new funding is disbursed through the DOE's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), which initially selected X-Energy in October 2020 with an $80 million seed allocation. X-Energy was one of two full-scale demonstration awardees under the ARDP, alongside TerraPower's Natrium sodium-cooled reactor project in Wyoming, placing the program at the center of a broader federal strategy to deploy multiple advanced reactor designs before the end of the decade. With this latest tranche, total federal backing for the Xe-100 project reaches approximately $1.23 billion.

Project Overview: The Xe-100 Reactor

At the core of the initiative is X-Energy's Xe-100 reactor, a high-temperature gas-cooled design classified within the small modular reactor category. The reactor uses TRISO (tristructural-isotropic) fuel — uranium particles coated in carbon and ceramic layers that contain fission products at temperatures well beyond those of conventional reactor fuel, enabling the passive safety approach central to the design. The company intends to deploy four Xe-100 units at Dow Inc.'s UCC Seadrift Operations facility along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Each unit is designed to produce 80 MWe, yielding a combined plant capacity of 320 MWe. The facility will deliver zero-carbon electricity and process steam to support Dow's chemical manufacturing operations, replacing legacy fossil-fuel infrastructure at the site. Industrial process heat accounts for a substantial share of manufacturing energy consumption, and the Seadrift deployment represents one of the most advanced efforts to pair nuclear energy directly with an operating chemical plant.

A construction permit application was expected to be filed with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission by March 2025. The project's environmental assessment has already produced a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), an outcome anticipated by May 2026 that was reportedly progressing ahead of schedule.

X-Energy's Public Market Debut

X-Energy trades on NASDAQ under the ticker XE. The company completed its public listing in April 2026, described at the time as the largest nuclear-sector IPO on record. The offering raised approximately $1.02 billion, with shares gaining 27% on their first day of trading.

The DOE's selection of X-Energy for the ARDP in October 2020 marked a pivotal milestone. Under the program, the federal government and private developers share project costs, with the objective of bringing demonstration reactors into operation within approximately seven years of selection — a timeline that targets operation around 2027.

Industrial Decarbonization Context

In 2023, Dow joined the project as a sub-awardee and host site, redirecting the initiative's focus to the Texas facility as part of broader industrial decarbonization efforts. Heavy industries — including chemicals, steel, and cement — contribute a substantial portion of global emissions, and many of their thermal processes cannot be served by intermittent renewable sources alone.

The cumulative $1.23 billion in DOE commitments substantially reduces the financial exposure associated with first-of-a-kind reactor construction, as federal cost-sharing ensures that X-Energy does not bear the full development risk independently.