Abilene, Texas To Become Hub for Advanced Nuclear Energy Development
The small West Texas city of Abilene is better known for country music and rodeos than advanced nuclear physics. But that's where scientists are entering the final stretch of a race to boot up the next generation of American atomic energy.
Amid a flurry of nuclear startups around the country, Abilene-based Natura Resources is one of just two companies with permits from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct a so-called "advanced" reactor. It will build its small, one megawatt molten salt reactor beneath a newly-completed laboratory at Abilene Christian University, in an underground trench 25 feet deep and 80 feet long, covered by a concrete lid and serviced by a 40-ton construction crane.
The other company, California-based Kairos Power, is building its 35 megawatt test reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the 80-year capital of American nuclear power science. Both target completion in 2027 and hope to usher in a new chapter of the energy age.
"A company and school no one has heard of has gotten to the forefront of advanced nuclear," said Rusty Towell, a nuclear physicist at Abilene Christian University and lead developer of Natura's reactor. "This is going to bless the world."
The U.S. Department of Energy has been working for years to resuscitate the American nuclear sector, advancing the development of new reactors to meet the enormous incoming electrical demands of big new industrial facilities, from data centers and Bitcoin mines to chemical plants and desalination facilities.
Leaders in Texas, the nation's largest energy producer and consumer, have declared intentions to court the growing nuclear sector and settle it in state. The project at Abilene Christian University is just one of several early advanced reactor deployments already planned here.
Dow Chemical plans to place small reactors made by X-energy at its Seadrift complex on the Gulf Coast. Last month, Natura announced plans to power oilfield infrastructure in the Permian Basin. And in February, Texas A&M University announced that four companies, including Natura and Kairos, would build small, 250 megawatt commercial-scale reactors at a massive new "proving grounds" near its campus in College Station.
"We need energy in Texas, we need a lot of it and we need it fast," said state Sen. Charles Perry, chairman of the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs. "The companies that are coming here are going to need a different type of energy long term."
"If we do what we're asked to do from industry groups out here, if we do what we think we should do and we know we should do, we could actually put a stake in the ground that Texas is the proving ground for these energies," Perry said, speaking this month in the state capitol at a nuclear power forum hosted by PowerHouse Texas, a nonprofit that promotes energy innovation.
But, he added, "Texas is going to have to decide: At what level of risk is it prudent for taxpayer dollars to be risked?"
Dozens of proposed new reactor designs promise improved efficiency and safety over traditional models with less hazardous waste. While existing nuclear reactors use cooling systems filled with water, so-called "advanced" reactor designs use alternatives like molten salt or metal. It enables them, in theory, to operate at a higher temperature and lower pressure, increasing the energy output while decreasing the risks of leaks or explosions.
"We understand how much work we're facing and getting that done means finding every appropriate efficiency in our reviews," said Scott Burnell, public affairs officer for the NRC.
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