DL E&C, Doosan to invest $25 mn in SMR developer X-Energy

South Korea’s DL E&C Co. and Doosan Enerbility Co. will invest a combined $25 million in X-Energy Reactor Co., a US-based small modular reactor (SMR) developer.

X-Energy said on Wednesday that it was receiving the strategic investment to finance the development of its advanced SMR, or Xe-100.

DL E&C and Doosan are injecting $20 million and $5 million into X-Energy, respectively, through the purchase of bonds convertible into equities to be issued by the US company.

Additionally, X-Energy is set to raise $60 million from Seoul-based private equity firm Whale Investment Co.

The Xe-100 is a fourth-generation, high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. It is composed of four 80-megawatt (MW) modules with a power generation capacity of 320 MW in aggregate.

Along with the equity investment, Doosan will supply major SMR components and equipment such as reactor pressure vessels for the Xe-100.

DL E&C will likely engage in the engineering, procurement and construction for the Xe-100 plants. 

X-Energy is among the three leading SMR developers in the US, along with TerraPower and NuScale Power LLC. The US Department of Energy sponsors the three companies.  

DL E&C and Doosan are participating in X-Energy’s Series C funding round.

“In addition to the $25 million investment from DL E&C and Doosan, X-Energy is continuing to negotiate the terms of a potential incremental investment from certain additional Korean investors,” X-Energy said in a press release.

Their investments come as X-Energy is expected to list on the New York Stock Exchange once it completes a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in the second quarter of this year, the company said.

“Our investment in X-Energy, coupled with our intention to help develop and deploy the world’s leading nuclear technology, is in line with our stated goal to focus on eco-friendly projects,” DL E&C’s plant business division head Yoo Jaeho said in the joint statement.

For Doosan, the investment is expected to provide an opportunity to pursue diverse industrial applications of the Xe-100 technology, including the use of steam heat from the reactor to produce hydrogen or for other industries.
 
“Beyond our longstanding business focus on large-scale nuclear equipment supply, Doosan has established a solid foothold in SMR as a global foundry,” said Doosan’s nuclear business group head Kim Jongdoo.

SMRs are regarded as a next-generation energy source due to their lower investment costs and fewer carbon emissions than existing large nuclear power plants. SMRs are also safer as they are cooled without complicated safety devices.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.