The latest episode of Going Nuclear welcomes Dr. Benjamin Reinke, Vice President of Global Business Development and Deputy Chief Commercial Officer at X-Energy. X-Energy is a leading American nuclear reactor fuel design engineering company focused on developing the Xe-100, a generation four high temperature gas cooled small modular reactor. The Xe-100 is powered by proprietary TRISO-X fuel, engineered to be melt-proof, ensuring safe, clean, and scalable energy for electricity and industrial process heat applications. Reinke explains that the reactor’s high operating temperatures expand its use cases beyond traditional base load power, offering opportunities like providing high-temperature process steam to heavy industry. This capability was first realized through X-Energy’s partnership with Dow Chemical, marking the first industrial sale of nuclear power from a vendor to a global commodity producer. Additionally, X-Energy recently made headlines with its landmark deal with Amazon, which invested heavily in the company and committed to off-take power from a minimum of five gigawatts of Xe-100 reactors by 2039. The company is also pursuing fleet deployment internationally, having partnered with Centrica, the largest UK-owned utility, to target a six gigawatt deployment in the United Kingdom. With these significant commercial successes totaling over 11 gigawatts, Reinke emphasizes that X-Energy’s current focus is now on project delivery, supply chain scaling, and the construction of their first commercial-scale TRISO-x fuel facility.
