X-energy Partners with Kinectrics for Helium Test Facility

Ibadan, 3 April 2023. – X-Energy Reactor Company and Kinectrics have announced a partnership to design, construct, and operate one of the first commercial-scale Helium Test Facilities (“HTF”) in North America. This facility will test and verify the performance of critical structures, systems, and components of X-energy’s Xe-100 advanced small modular reactor in helium-based high-temperature and high-pressure environments.

The Helium Test Facility is integral to testing X-energy’s systems and components in standard operating conditions and verifying their safety, operability, and reliability. Furthermore, the facility will bring nuclear operators, researchers, and engineers together to drive additional potential optimizations of the Company’s reactors. As a result, X-Energy expects Kinectrics to play an essential role in the success of X-energy’s products due to its nuclear component testing, characterization, and certification expertise.

X-energy and Kinectrics expect to announce the HTF site this summer and complete its detailed design in 2023, with the goal of having an operational facility in 2025. Working alongside Kinectrics’s team of life cycle management experts, X-energy engineers expect to refine Xe-100 start-up and commissioning procedures using data collected from HTF testing and to gain critical operating experience to inform future reactor maintenance, operations, and staff training.

Speaking on the partnership, Kinectrics CEO, David Harris, said, “This project is part of a long-term partnership between X-energy and Kinectrics. We expect the Xe-100 will produce electricity and high-temperature process steam safely and safely, enabling our clean energy future.”