X-energy and its helium-cooled nuclear reactors

X-energy 及其氦冷核反应堆

X-energy is developing small modular reactors to satisfy some of the planet’s most power-hungry users: industrial manufacturers that need high temperatures to produce billions of tons of concrete, plastics, fibers, and chemicals. Solar panels and wind turbines are great at producing electricity but what heavy industry also needs is raw heat—and lots of it. The manufacture of concrete, glass, and steel, as well as the production of many chemicals, plastics, and fertilizers, are still highly reliant on fossil fuels to produce that heat.

X-energy 正在开发小型模块化反应堆，以满足全球一些能源需求最大的用户：工业制造商。这些行业需要高温来生产数十亿吨的混凝土、塑料、纤维和化学品。太阳能电池板和风力涡轮机在发电方面表现出色，但重工业还需要原始热能，而且需求量巨大。目前，混凝土、玻璃和钢铁的制造，以及许多化学品、塑料和肥料的生产，仍然高度依赖化石燃料来提供这些热能。

Traditional nuclear reactors simply don’t get hot enough. The cooling systems they use require liquid water to work, and even applying pressure to raise the water’s boiling point leaves their maximum operating temperatures hundreds of degrees cooler than needed. X-energy’s proposed Xe-100 reactor will use helium gas as a coolant instead, allowing it to operate at much lower pressures and higher temperatures. The helium will heat water and create super-heated steam, which industry can use either directly or to generate 80 megawatts (MW) of electricity via a turbine, or a combination of the two. That’s about one-tenth of the capacity of most reactors operating today.

传统的核反应堆温度不够高。它们所使用的冷却系统需要液态水才能工作，即使通过加压来提高水的沸点，其最高工作温度仍比所需温度低几百摄氏度。X-energy 提议的 Xe-100 反应堆将改用氦气作为冷却剂，使其能够在更低的压力和更高的温度下运行。氦气将加热水并产生过热蒸汽，工业界既可以直接利用这些蒸汽，也可以通过涡轮机产生 80 兆瓦（MW）的电力，或者两者结合使用。这大约是目前大多数在役反应堆容量的十分之一。

In common with other small modular reactors (SMRs), the Xe-100 will use a modern uranium-based fuel called TRISO (short for tristructural-isotropic) that is extremely resistant to corrosion and melting. Compact TRISO “pebbles” will be added continuously to the top of the reactor, then flow slowly to the bottom, where they will either be recycled or removed as waste. The company says the reactor will be intrinsically safe in the event of a loss of power—if temperatures inside rise, the nuclear reaction naturally slows and stops.

与其他小型模块化反应堆（SMR）一样，Xe-100 将使用一种名为 TRISO（三结构各向同性燃料的缩写）的现代铀基燃料，这种燃料具有极强的抗腐蚀和抗熔化能力。紧凑的 TRISO“卵石”燃料球将不断从反应堆顶部加入，然后缓慢流向底部，在那里它们要么被回收，要么作为废物被移除。该公司表示，该反应堆在断电情况下具有本质安全性——如果内部温度升高，核反应会自动减慢并停止。

Key indicators / 关键指标

• Industry: Nuclear fission / 行业： 核裂变
• Founded: 2009 / 成立时间： 2009 年
• Headquarters: Rockville, Maryland, US / 总部： 美国马里兰州罗克维尔
• Notable fact: The first helium-cooled reactor was proposed for the World War II Manhattan Project but was passed over in favor of a simpler and cheaper water-cooled design. / 值得注意的事实： 第一个氦冷反应堆是在二战“曼哈顿计划”中提出的，但当时为了更简单、更便宜的水冷设计而被放弃。

Potential for impact / 潜在影响

Industrial heating currently accounts for 18 percent of annual global greenhouse-gas emissions, with about half of that coming from high-temperature processes that are difficult to electrify. Co-locating small nuclear reactors at large manufacturing facilities could shrink some of the biggest carbon footprints in the world. The Xe-100 reactor could also be used by the fossil fuel industry, which today uses vast quantities of natural gas to generate the heat needed to recover oil from tar sands, and during oil refining.

工业供热目前占全球年度温室气体排放量的 18%，其中约一半来自难以电气化的高温工艺。在大型制造设施旁部署小型核反应堆，可以缩小世界上一些最大的碳足迹。Xe-100 反应堆还可以被化石燃料行业使用，该行业目前消耗大量天然气来产生从油砂中回收石油所需的热量，以及在炼油过程中使用。

The flexibility of the Xe-100 means that it can be used for traditional electricity generation. By scaling down in size and power from today’s gigawatt-scale fission plants, small reactors like the Xe-100 can serve more markets—even down to individual data centers. AI and data centers now represent the single largest component of new demand for electricity in the US, and their consumption is expected to double again by 2030. X-energy says that up to 12 of its reactors could be clustered together to provide 24/7 power on site, at a lower cost than a traditional nuclear power station and without the hassle of adding transmission infrastructure.

Xe-100 的灵活性意味着它可用于传统的发电。通过缩小规模和功率，从当今吉瓦级的裂变电厂转向小型反应堆，像 Xe-100 这样的设备可以服务于更多市场——甚至可以下沉到单个数据中心。人工智能和数据中心目前是美国电力新需求中占比最大的单一组成部分，预计到 2030 年其用电量将再次翻倍。X-energy 表示，最多可以将 12 个反应堆集群在一起，在现场提供 24/7 的电力，其成本低于传统的核电站，且无需增加输电基础设施的麻烦。

Caveats / 注意事项

The technology behind helium-cooled fission may be well understood, but the only commercial-scale power generation of this type today is in China, where two reactors have struggled to operate on a continuous basis. X-energy says that its vertically integrated fuel supply should ensure reliable operation, with reactors having a lifetime of 60 years. The economic case for SMRs is also largely unproven. Nuclear costs and timelines have a habit of ballooning, and the US Energy Information Administration calculates that electricity from SMRs will cost more than six times that from solar farms.

氦冷裂变背后的技术或许已广为人知，但目前世界上唯一此类商业规模的发电项目位于中国，且那里的两座反应堆在持续运行方面一直面临挑战。X-energy 表示，其垂直整合的燃料供应应能确保可靠运行，反应堆的使用寿命可达 60 年。SMR 的经济性在很大程度上也尚未得到验证。核能的成本和时间表往往会膨胀，美国能源信息署计算得出，SMR 的电力成本将是太阳能电场的六倍以上。

While the current environment in the US for regulation and government funding favors nuclear, that could change over X-energy’s long development time frame. TRISO reactors appear excellent for safety and nonproliferation (the tough spheres would be difficult to turn into weapons) but are less impressive when it comes to waste. The Xe-100 might produce 10 times the volume of spent nuclear fuel per unit of energy as existing reactors, although its lower-level waste will need less sophisticated storage.

虽然目前美国在监管和政府资金方面对核能持支持态度，但在 X-energy 漫长的开发周期中，这种情况可能会发生变化。TRISO 反应堆在安全性和防扩散方面表现出色（坚硬的球体很难被改造成武器），但在废物处理方面则不那么令人印象深刻。Xe-100 每单位能源产生的乏核燃料体积可能是现有反应堆的 10 倍，尽管其低水平废物的存储要求较低。

Next steps / 后续步骤

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued X-energy’s subsidiary with a fuel fabrication license for TRISO-X pebbles, with its first factory due for completion in 2028. An Xe-100 to supply heat and power for a large chemical facility in Texas operated by Dow has also cleared its first regulatory hurdle, and could be operational by the early 2030s. In tandem, X-energy is working toward a 320 MW cluster of four Xe-100 reactors in Richland, Washington, in collaboration with Amazon, and a larger 6 GW fleet in the UK’s northeast. Both projects target electricity generation in the 2030s.

美国核管理委员会已向 X-energy 的子公司颁发了 TRISO-X 燃料球的燃料制造许可证，其首家工厂预计于 2028 年完工。一座旨在为陶氏化学（Dow）在德克萨斯州运营的大型化工厂提供热能和电力的 Xe-100 反应堆也已通过了首个监管关卡，最早可能在 2030 年代初投入运营。与此同时，X-energy 正与亚马逊合作，计划在华盛顿州里奇兰建设一个由四座 Xe-100 反应堆组成的 320 兆瓦集群，并在英国东北部建设一个规模更大的 6 吉瓦机组群。这两个项目都计划在 2030 年代实现发电。