The Trump administration’s drive to revive American manufacturing and power a growing artificial intelligence industry is accelerating with a new nuclear energy project in Texas, The Washington Times reported.
A manufacturing facility in Texas is preparing to switch from natural gas to nuclear power as the Trump administration pushes to expand the use of small modular reactors, or SMRs, to meet rising electricity demand and bolster the U.S. manufacturing base.
This week, Dow Chemical and nuclear engineering firm X-energy submitted a federal construction permit application for a next-generation SMR at Dow’s 4,700-acre plant in Seadrift, Texas. The site produces plastics and chemical products used in dozens of applications and will be the first U.S. facility of its kind powered by a grid-scale advanced nuclear reactor.
“This project will demonstrate how the technology deployed at Seadrift, Texas, can be quickly and efficiently replicated to meet incredible power demand growth across America,” said J. Clay Sell, CEO of X-energy.
The SMR project is one of several initiatives supported by President Donald Trump to reindustrialize the country and provide clean, reliable energy for artificial intelligence data centers. Within days of taking office for his second term, the president declared a national emergency to speed the construction of new energy plants, including SMRs, which he has described as a priority for energy security and technological leadership.
“These can be built ultrasafe. They are ultraclean, and they’re very low-cost. But they are absolutely safe,” Trump told supporters in York, Pennsylvania, last August.
Unlike traditional nuclear plants, SMRs are smaller, cheaper to build, and can be constructed in modules. Their design allows for high reliability, reduced carbon emissions, and easier siting since they do not require proximity to large bodies of water.
X-energy’s Seadrift reactor will use helium gas to cool billions of uranium-filled pebbles, generating temperatures near 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit to create steam for power.
“What attracted them to X-energy was that our plant configuration is four modules that produce about 320 megawatts,” said Carol Lane, X-energy’s vice president of government affairs. “It gives very, very high reliability, which is something that the data centers and AI centers really care about.”
Big Tech companies are increasingly backing SMRs. In October, Google announced a deal with Kairos Power to deploy multiple SMRs starting in 2030.
Amazon soon followed, investing $500 million in three SMR projects, including a 320-megawatt X-energy venture in Washington state with Energy Northwest. Amazon’s agreement could bring 5 gigawatts of power online by 2039.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has pledged full support.
“We will work diligently and creatively to enable the rapid deployment and export of next-generation nuclear technology,” he said in February.
Despite past setbacks — including the 2023 cancellation of NuScale Power’s Idaho project, which faced cost overruns and a lack of buyers — enthusiasm remains strong. China leads the world in SMRs, and under Trump’s leadership, the United States aims to follow suit, according to the Times.
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