Advanced nuclear fuel manufacturer TRISO-X, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-energy, has formally signed a 30-month agreement extension with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The renewed cooperative research and development agreement builds upon nearly a decade of continuous collaboration that began in 2016.
The extended partnership allows TRISO-X to continue operating its pilot fabrication facility directly onsite at ORNL. The joint effort combines ORNL’s deep foundational expertise in nuclear materials science with TRISO-X’s chemical engineering capabilities to optimize fuel fabrication, maximize product yields, refine characterization protocols, and streamline advanced particle processing streams.
This ongoing research partnership acts as a crucial technical bridge for TRISO-X as it scales its commercial infrastructure, complementing the development of its multi-facility nuclear fuel campus in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The campus will house the commercial TX-1 facility—which secured the first-ever U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Part 70 license for a commercial High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel fabrication facility—alongside planned expansions for future mass production to support the broader advanced modular reactor and microreactor markets.
Industry Perspective
The extension of the TRISO-X and ORNL partnership highlights a vital, foundational requirement for the commercialization of advanced nuclear technology: the successful transition of lab-scale innovation into high-volume, reliable manufacturing. High-temperature gas-cooled reactors rely heavily on the robust, accident-tolerant nature of tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel, but scaling its production under strict commercial quality assurance standards has historically presented significant engineering hurdles.
By leveraging the deep-bench scientific resources of a national laboratory alongside private commercial development, this public-private framework effectively de-risks the nuclear fuel supply chain. For the broader advanced nuclear sector, establishing secure, domestic HALEU and particle fuel production capabilities is an absolute prerequisite. This collaboration ensures that as developers like X-energy move toward commercial deployment—such as the Dow Seadrift project—the necessary fuel infrastructure will mature in lockstep with reactor construction.
