Tennessee awards TRISO-X $11M grant for Oak Ridge nuclear fuel campus

TRISO-X, LLC, a subsidiary of X-energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: XE), has received an $11 million economic development grant from the State of Tennessee to support expansion of its nuclear fuel fabrication campus in Oak Ridge, according to a company press release.

The funding comes from Tennessee's Nuclear Energy Supply Chain Investment Fund, established by Governor Bill Lee in 2023. The grant will support the potential development of a second commercial fuel facility, designated TX-2, and a dedicated research and development center, TX-L, adjacent to the company's first facility, TX-1, currently under construction.

TX-2 is expected to create more than 1,000 permanent jobs and offer expanded production capacity relative to TX-1. TX-L would focus on fuel innovation and testing. Together, the three facilities are intended to produce enough TRISO-X fuel to support approximately 55 of X-energy's Xe-100 small modular reactors, representing close to 4.5 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity.

In February 2026, TRISO-X received a 40-year Special Nuclear Material License from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission covering both TX-1 and TX-2 under a single license. The company describes TX-1 and TX-2 as the first new fuel facilities licensed by the NRC in over 50 years.

Joel Duling, President of TRISO-X, said, "This is an important step in building a world-class nuclear fuel campus capable of powering next-generation nuclear."

In 2025, TRISO-X fuel began irradiation testing at Idaho National Laboratory's Advanced Test Reactor, with testing ongoing to qualify the fuel for use in the Xe-100 reactor.

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