A massive new nuclear-fuel facility taking shape in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is moving closer to becoming one of the most important pieces of America's next-generation nuclear infrastructure. X-energy's subsidiary, TRISO-X, has completed the main structure of its 214,000-square-foot TX-1 facility, clearing the way for interior construction, specialized equipment installation and eventually the production of advanced nuclear fuel.
Image Courtesy : energy.gov
The project is significant for a reason that extends beyond the size of the building. Once operational, TX-1 is expected to become the first new commercial-scale U.S. nuclear fuel fabrication facility built in more than 50 years, according to X-energy. The plant is designed to manufacture approximately 700,000 TRISO fuel pebbles annually, using about 5 metric tons of uranium and producing enough fuel to support as many as 11 of X-energy's planned Xe-100 advanced reactors.
That makes the Tennessee project an important part of a much larger effort to rebuild America's domestic nuclear-energy supply chain. The United States has spent decades relying on an aging nuclear fleet and a fuel infrastructure that was not designed for the wave of advanced reactors now being proposed. X-energy is attempting to address that problem by building the fuel manufacturing capability alongside its reactor technology rather than waiting for a mature commercial supply chain to emerge.
At the heart of TX-1 is a type of nuclear fuel called TRISO, short for tristructural-isotropic fuel. Instead of conventional fuel assemblies, TRISO fuel consists of tiny uranium particles surrounded by multiple layers of carbon and ceramic materials. Those protective layers are designed to retain radioactive fission products and allow the fuel to withstand extremely high temperatures.
X-energy's Xe-100 reactor is specifically designed around this fuel technology. Each Xe-100 module is designed to produce approximately 80 megawatts of electricity, with four modules combined into a 320-megawatt power plant. That modular approach is intended to allow nuclear generation to be deployed in standardized units rather than relying exclusively on enormous conventional reactors.
The fuel plant is therefore not simply a factory producing a commodity. It is a critical component of X-energy's reactor strategy. Without a reliable domestic source of the specialized fuel required by the Xe-100, the company's plans for deploying a fleet of advanced reactors would face another major supply-chain constraint.
That challenge has become increasingly important as demand for electricity rises across the United States. Artificial intelligence data centers, semiconductor factories, electric vehicles, manufacturing facilities and other energy-intensive industries are all adding pressure to the country's electrical infrastructure. At the same time, utilities are dealing with aging generation assets and transmission systems that can take years to expand.
Nuclear power has increasingly returned to the center of that conversation because reactors can provide continuous electricity without the intermittency associated with solar and wind generation. Advanced reactor developers are now attempting to build smaller, standardized designs that can potentially serve industrial customers and utilities while providing consistent power.
X-energy's strategy is particularly interesting because its reactor technology and fuel manufacturing operation are being developed together. TX-1 is located in Oak Ridge, a community with an unusually deep connection to America's nuclear history. The area was central to the Manhattan Project during World War II and later became a major center for nuclear research and development.
The new facility effectively connects that history with a new generation of commercial nuclear technology.
Construction of TX-1 began moving vertically in late 2025, and the completion of the main building structure this month marks a major transition. The project is now moving beyond the core-and-shell phase toward the installation of the systems that will actually manufacture the fuel. Clark Construction Group remains the project's contractor and is handling the interior buildout, process equipment and supporting facilities.
The building's completion does not mean uranium production begins immediately. The remaining work includes installing specialized fuel-manufacturing equipment, completing interior systems and preparing the facility for regulatory readiness. Reporting on the project indicates that fuel fabrication is expected to begin in early 2028 following equipment installation, testing and a final NRC operational-readiness review.
Regulatory approval is already an important milestone.
In February, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted TRISO-X a 40-year Part 70 Special Nuclear Material License for TX-1. The Department of Energy described it as the first Category II fuel-fabrication license issued by the NRC and the first new fuel-fabrication license issued in the United States in approximately five decades.
The license is particularly important because TX-1 is designed to process high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. Advanced reactor designs frequently require fuel with enrichment levels above those traditionally used in America's existing commercial nuclear fleet but below the threshold associated with highly enriched uranium.
The availability of HALEU has become one of the major challenges facing advanced-reactor developers. A reactor can be ready to build on paper, but without a dependable supply of the fuel it requires, commercial deployment becomes significantly more difficult.
That is why a domestic manufacturing facility such as TX-1 could have implications well beyond X-energy itself.
If the U.S. wants to deploy a large fleet of advanced reactors, it will need an industrial base capable of producing their fuel at scale. That means uranium enrichment, conversion, fuel fabrication, specialized materials, transportation and regulatory infrastructure all have to develop alongside the reactors.
X-energy is attempting to establish one of those pieces.
The company expects TX-1's annual output of approximately 700,000 fuel pebbles to represent about 5 metric tons of uranium. At full production, that would be enough fuel for up to 11 Xe-100 reactors based on X-energy's stated estimates.
The first major customer for that fuel is expected to be X-energy's planned Xe-100 deployment at Dow's UCC Seadrift Operations site along the Texas Gulf Coast. The project is being developed through the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program and is intended to provide electricity and industrial steam to the manufacturing site.
That Texas connection is especially notable because the industrial economy is increasingly looking for dependable electricity close to major manufacturing operations. Nuclear reactors could potentially provide both electricity and high-temperature industrial energy, allowing facilities to reduce their dependence on conventional fossil-fuel generation.
X-energy is also developing its broader reactor pipeline with additional partners, including Energy Northwest and Amazon. The company's Cascade Advanced Energy Facility is being advanced in Washington state, while other projects are being considered as the company works toward establishing a commercial fleet of Xe-100 reactors.
The Tennessee fuel plant could therefore eventually support reactors far beyond the first project in Texas.
X-energy has also been expanding its physical footprint in Oak Ridge. TRISO-X recently acquired approximately 70 additional acres at its Horizon Center campus, bringing the company's total campus to roughly 180 acres, according to project reporting. The company has also extended its research relationship with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and begun work on TX-L, a separate research and development facility.
That expansion suggests Oak Ridge could become more than the location of one factory. It could develop into a larger advanced-nuclear manufacturing and research hub.
The significance of that possibility becomes clearer when looking at the broader U.S. energy landscape. America's existing nuclear fleet remains an important source of carbon-free electricity, but many reactors are decades old. Building conventional large reactors has also historically involved long construction timelines and substantial costs.
Advanced reactors are being promoted as a potential alternative, with developers pursuing smaller designs, factory-manufactured components, passive safety systems and different fuel technologies.
X-energy's Xe-100 belongs to that category.
The reactor is a high-temperature gas-cooled design that uses helium as its coolant and TRISO fuel. Rather than using water as the primary coolant like most existing U.S. commercial reactors, the Xe-100 is designed around a different combination of materials and operating characteristics.
The TRISO fuel is particularly central to the design because its multiple protective layers are intended to remain stable at extremely high temperatures. The concept is that the fuel itself provides an additional barrier to the release of radioactive material, complementing the reactor's broader safety systems.
That doesn't eliminate the engineering and regulatory challenges associated with nuclear power, but it represents a different approach from the technology dominating America's current reactor fleet.
The construction of TX-1 is therefore effectively the industrial side of that technological transition.
Building the reactor is only one part of deploying a new nuclear system. The country also needs the ability to manufacture its fuel reliably, repeatedly and at commercial scale.
That is where the Tennessee project could become strategically important.
For decades, America's nuclear industry operated around technologies and supply chains established during the first generation of commercial nuclear power. Advanced reactors introduce new fuel requirements that those existing systems were not necessarily designed to accommodate.
A domestic TRISO production facility could help bridge that gap.
The timing is also notable because nuclear power is receiving renewed attention from the technology industry. Major technology companies are looking for large amounts of electricity to power data centers and artificial-intelligence systems, while industrial companies are simultaneously seeking reliable energy for new manufacturing projects.
Amazon is already involved with X-energy's Cascade project, demonstrating how the technology sector is becoming involved in nuclear development rather than leaving generation entirely to traditional utilities.
That relationship between AI and nuclear power could become increasingly important.
AI data centers can consume enormous amounts of electricity, and their operators generally want power that is available around the clock. Renewable generation can contribute significant amounts of electricity, but matching variable generation with continuous high-density computing demand can require additional storage, transmission or backup generation.
Nuclear power offers a different proposition: continuous generation from a relatively compact physical footprint.
Advanced reactors could potentially be deployed near industrial customers, although each project still faces significant regulatory, engineering, financing and construction requirements.
The Tennessee fuel plant doesn't solve those problems by itself. What it does is address one of the less visible bottlenecks in the equation: the availability of specialized nuclear fuel.
That may ultimately prove just as important as the reactors themselves.
The project also illustrates why the nuclear renaissance will require more than reactor startups. A functioning nuclear industry depends on an entire network of companies capable of supplying fuel, components, materials, engineering services and specialized manufacturing.
TX-1 represents an attempt to establish that infrastructure before a large commercial fleet of advanced reactors exists.
There is still considerable work ahead.
The facility needs to finish its interior systems and install its production equipment. Regulatory inspections and operational approvals remain necessary before commercial fuel fabrication can begin. And X-energy still has to successfully deploy its Xe-100 technology at commercial sites.
The company's ambitious plans therefore remain dependent on successful execution across multiple stages.
But the completion of the 214,000-square-foot building represents a tangible milestone. The project has moved from plans and engineering documents into a physical industrial facility that is now beginning its transition toward manufacturing.
For the United States, that could be significant.
A country attempting to expand nuclear generation needs a domestic fuel supply chain capable of supporting the technology it wants to deploy. Without that foundation, advanced reactors could remain limited by the same supply-chain constraints that have slowed other parts of the nuclear industry.
X-energy is trying to build that foundation in Oak Ridge.
If TX-1 reaches commercial operation as planned, the facility could produce hundreds of thousands of advanced nuclear fuel pebbles every year and support a growing fleet of Xe-100 reactors. Its importance could therefore extend from a single Tennessee construction project to the broader effort to establish a new generation of American nuclear manufacturing.
The United States has entered the current nuclear revival with an unusual combination of challenges: rapidly rising electricity demand, aging energy infrastructure, geopolitical concerns surrounding energy supply chains and growing interest in reliable low-carbon power.
No single project can solve all of those problems.
But a domestic advanced-fuel plant capable of supplying multiple reactors addresses one of the fundamental requirements for building a new nuclear industry.
That makes the quiet progress happening inside this enormous Tennessee facility worth watching. The most consequential part of America's next nuclear era may not always be the reactor towering above the landscape. It may be the industrial infrastructure being built behind the scenes to make sure those reactors actually have fuel to run.