A plan from Dow and X-energy Reactor Co. LLC to build a nuclear plant with four small modular reactors in Texas is advancing as the companies submitted a construction permit application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on March 31. The plant, known as Long Mott Generating Station, would be the first grid-scale advanced nuclear facility at an industrial site in North America.

Long Mott would use four of  Xe-100 advanced SMRs developed by X-energy and Dow to power the chemical firm’s UCC Seadrift Operations manufacturing site in Seadrift, Texas, with a total capacity of 800 MWth/320 MWe. Dow produces various plastics, glycols and oxide derivatives totaling more than 4 billion lb of material per year at the 4,700-acre Seadrift site. 

The SMRs would replace existing energy and steam assets nearing the end of their usable life. Their on-site use would eliminate most of the facility’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions, according to X-energy. Scope 1 emissions are direct greenhouse gas emissions from owned fuel combustion, while Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions associated with purchasing electricity, steam, heat or cooling, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Details from the commission application are not yet available. A representative from the agency said officials were still in the process of redacting its protected information. 

Application approval may take up to 30 months, according to Dow. The companies have been working with the commission since 2018 on pre-application materials to demonstrate safety and advanced design of the SMRs. 

“This is an important next step in expanding access to safe, clean, reliable, cost-competitive nuclear energy in the U.S.,” said Edward Stones, business vice president of energy and climate at Dow, in a statement. 

The project’s timeline is still unclear as it goes through permitting, but Dow says construction could begin later this decade for Long Mott to begin operating in the early 2030s. 

The U.S. Dept. of Energy selected the Xe-100 for support in 2020 through its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which is aimed at speeding up development of new nuclear reactor technology. Department  officials awarded X-energy’s effort an initial $80 million in funding and indicated additional matching funds would be available over seven years.