Texas Emerges as Leading Test Bed for Small Modular Reactors
New funding pushes diverse reactor pilots toward near-term tests despite cost and licensing hurdles.
Overview
- State policy now includes a $350 million Texas Nuclear Development Fund under House Bill 14, complemented by the federal ADVANCE Act’s direction to streamline Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviews and lower fees.
- Natura Resources is constructing a molten-salt, liquid-fuel research reactor at Abilene Christian University and targets initial operation by late 2026 or early 2027.
- Austin-based Aalo Atomics says it is designing factory-built, truck-transportable 10 megawatt sodium-cooled fast reactors and plans to activate a first 10 megawatt test unit within about five months after December prototype testing.
- X-energy, supported by $1.2 billion from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, plans four 80 megawatt units at Dow’s Seadrift complex with initial output expected in the early 2030s.
- ERCOT faces projected demand growth that could nearly triple by 2050, yet SMR deployment must overcome economics pegged by a UT analysis at $3 million per megawatt and NRC timelines that typically exceed 18 months with demonstration data requirements.