TRISO-X, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-energy, has started the next construction phase at its TX-1 advanced nuclear fuel fabrication plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The project moves from vertical construction into interior build out, auxiliary buildings, and process equipment installation.
Clark Construction Group remains the contractor and will handle interior work on the 214,000 square foot process and administration building along with an adjacent graphite matrix powder building. Once operating, the plant is designed to produce 700,000 TRISO-X pebbles per year, roughly 5 metric tons of uranium, enough fuel for as many as 11 Xe-100 reactors.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued TRISO-X a 40-year Special Nuclear Material License, the first NRC Category 2 fuel facility license covering high assay low enriched uranium. The company expects TX-1 to be the first new commercial-scale nuclear fuel fabrication plant built in the United States in more than 50 years.
TRISO-X president Joel Duling described the phase change as a transition point toward installing the systems that make the facility operational. In recent weeks the company also extended its research agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, purchased another 70 acres at its Horizon Center campus, and received a Tennessee economic development grant.
The fuel produced at TX-1 supports X-energy's first proposed Xe-100 deployment with Dow at the UCC Seadrift site on the Texas Gulf Coast, tying the Tennessee plant to a downstream industrial customer in another southeastern state.
Source: X-energy - https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/08/24/3349609/0/en/triso-x-advances-to-next-phase-of-construction-for-tx-1-fuel-fabrication-facility.html