OPG, X-energy to examine industrial applications for Xe-100

Under the agreement, OPG and X-energy will pursue opportunities to deploy Xe-100 reactors in Ontario at industrial sites and identify further potential end users and sites throughout Canada.

The Xe-100 is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, being deployed by X-energy under the US Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. It is designed to generate zero-carbon industrial process heat and electricity across numerous sectors of the economy with each reactor unit producing 80 MWe. There can be up to 12 reactor units at a single site, generating nearly 1 GWe of power.

X-energy says the Xe-100 can directly support heavy industry including oil sands operations, mining applications and other industrial processes.

"This Generation IV reactor is scalable to meet demand, one unit can generate up to 80 megawatts of electricity from 200 megawatts of thermal power," the company said. "It efficiently produces steam at 565°C and offers highly-flexible co-generation options, making it the ideal candidate for decarbonising multiple industrial processes and supporting end-user power needs."

"As part of our climate change plan, we pledged to assist with efficient economy-wide decarbonisation," said OPG President and CEO Ken Hartwick. "Working with X-energy on the Xe-100, we can help heavy industry reach climate change goals by using clean, safe electricity and high-temperature steam efficiently produced through evolutionary nuclear technology to power their production facilities and enable decarbonisation of their industrial processes."

Katherine Moshonas Cole, president of X-energy Canada, added: "We are delighted to be working with OPG's experienced team to advance the deployment of the Xe-100 technology. Through this framework, we look forward to demonstrating how our advanced SMRs can accelerate the decarbonisation of industrial operations in Canada, which is critical to meeting our provincial and national climate change goals."

In November 2021, OPG announced it would work together with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to deploy a BWRX-300 SMR at the Darlington new nuclear site, the only site in Canada currently licensed for a new nuclear construction, to be completed by the end of this decade. As well as the BWRX-300, OPG had also been considering Terrestrial Energy's Integrated Molten Salt Reactor and X-energy's Xe-100 for deployment at Darlington.