NRC extends comment period for X-energy’s TX-1 fuel facility

As reported yesterday, small modular reactor developer X-energy and its subsidiary TRISO-X have started aboveground construction of the first-in-the-nation facility, which will be the first of two facilities built to manufacture TRISO fuel for use in X-energy’s Xe-100 small modular reactor.

As published in the November 17 Federal Register, the comment period on the TX-1 EIS was extended from November 17 to December 8. The NRC encourages comments to be submitted through the federal rulemaking website (Docket ID NRC-2022-0201).

Details: The NRC prepared a draft EIS as part of its environmental review of TRISO-X’s application for a 40-year license to possess and use special nuclear material at its TX-1 fuel fabrication facility. If approved, the license would allow the company to produce TRISO fuel at the facility using HALEU.

According to the draft EIS, the NRC staff, after weighing the environmental, economic, technical, and other benefits against environmental and other costs and considering reasonable alternatives, has made the preliminary recommendation—unless safety issues mandate otherwise—to issue TRISO-X the license.

The NRC said staff based its recommendation on the following factors:

• A review of TRISO-X’s environmental report (included as part of the TRISO-X license application), along with the company’s responses to requests for additional information.
• A review of comments received as part of the scoping process.
• Communications with federal, state, and local agencies as well as tribal officials.
• The staff’s independent environmental review.

The reasoning: The NRC registered the draft EIS with the Environmental Protection Agency in September 2025. However, due to the lapse of government appropriations, notice of the availability of the document was not published on October 3 by the EPA, as originally scheduled.

The NRC issued a Federal Register notice on October 23 to make the public aware of the availability of the draft EIS and to request comments on it until November 17. To meet its regulatory requirements, the NRC extended the comment period to December 8.

X-energy has said it expects to complete the licensing process by May 2026.