TRISO-X plans to create 1,140 new jobs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as the company constructs a new fuel facility and research and development center at the Horizon Center Industrial Park, a Select Tennessee Certified Site. While the final scope of the project is still being determined, the company anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the development.

The company became the first to receive a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to construct and operate a commercial-scale facility for producing High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel in the U.S. This announcement follows that licensing and will allow TRISO-X to develop advanced small modular reactors, accelerate commercialization of advanced nuclear technologies and strengthen the U.S. supply chain for critical nuclear fuel.

Founded and based in Oak Ridge, TRISO-X is a wholly owned subsidiary of Maryland-based X-energy and in 2022, broke ground on what was, at the time, North America’s first commercial advanced nuclear fuel facility.

TRISO-X is the ninth company to utilize funding from Tennessee’s Nuclear Energy Fund. The $50 million fund was in Gov. Lee’s recommended 2023-2024 budget and approved by the Tennessee General Assembly. An additional $45 million was allocated and approved in the state’s budget during both the 2024, 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions, bringing the fund’s total to $95 million since its inception.

Source: TN ECD

The East Tennessee Economic Development Agency markets and recruits business for the 15 counties in the greater Knoxville-Oak Ridge region of East Tennessee. Visit www.eteda.org