X-Energy, Inc. ($XE)

Earnings Call Transcript · June 4, 2026

NasdaqGS US Industrials Electrical Equipment Earnings Calls

Highlights from the call

In Q1 2026, X-Energy, Inc. reported total revenues and grant income of $43.4 million, reflecting a significant 109% increase year-over-year, driven primarily by services revenue under the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). The company also noted a substantial increase in operating expenses, totaling $109.5 million, largely due to heightened activity under ARDP. Management expressed confidence in their operational progress and outlined a roadmap for future projects, including the anticipated construction permit issuance for the Dow project in Q1 2027, which could be a key catalyst for future growth.

Main topics

  • First Earnings Call as Public Company: X-Energy celebrated its first earnings call as a public company following its IPO on April 27, 2026. CEO Clay Sell emphasized the importance of this milestone for the company's journey to commercialize advanced nuclear technology, stating, "We're excited to continue this journey as a publicly traded company."
  • Revenue Growth: The company reported total revenues of $43.4 million for Q1 2026, up 109% from the previous year, primarily due to increased services revenue under ARDP. CFO Daniel Gross noted, "This increase was driven largely by higher services revenue from ARDP as we ramped up activity."
  • Operating Expenses Increase: Total operating expenses rose to $109.5 million, a 133% increase year-over-year, attributed to higher activity levels and increased headcount. Gross stated, "This is primarily due to an increase in activity under the ARDP agreement, along with growth in employee headcount, contractor costs and professional fees."
  • Regulatory Approvals: X-Energy received its Part 70 commercial fuel fabrication license, marking a significant regulatory milestone as the first new commercial fuel fabrication facility licensed by the NRC in over 50 years. Sell highlighted, "This establishes our TX-1 and our planned TX-2 facilities as the first new commercial fuel fabrication facility licensed by the NRC in over 50 years."
  • Future Project Pipeline: Management indicated a strong project pipeline with expectations to announce a new 1 gigawatt project by the end of 2026. Sell mentioned, "We're confident at least one of those we'll be able to announce by the end of the year."

Key metrics mentioned

  • Total Revenue: $43.4 million (up 109% YoY)
  • Operating Expenses: $109.5 million (up 133% YoY)
  • Net Cash Used in Operating Activities: $67.3 million (up 61% YoY)
  • Total Liquidity: $944 million (includes cash and investments post-IPO)
  • IPO Proceeds: $1.1 billion (significantly strengthens balance sheet)
  • Mark-to-Market Loss: $101.8 million (due to warrant exercise)

X-Energy's strong revenue growth and successful IPO position it well for future expansion, particularly in advanced nuclear technology. However, the significant increase in operating expenses and cash burn rates raises concerns about financial sustainability. Investors should monitor upcoming project announcements and regulatory milestones as potential catalysts for stock performance.

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

Operator
#1

Hello, and welcome to the X-energy First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Patricia Gil, Director of Investor Relations for X-energy. You may now begin.

Patricia Gil

Executives
#2

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to X-energy's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. X-energy completed its initial public offering and as of April 24 is listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker XE. We're excited to be with you today for our first earnings call. This morning, we released first quarter 2026 financial results and operational highlights for X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC, the predecessor company to X-Energy, Inc. Today's presentation and our earnings press release are available on the Investor Relations portion of X-energy's website at investors.x-energy.com. Our remarks today will include forward-looking statements, which are based on assumptions as of today and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Our SEC filings, including our quarterly report on Form 10-Q, identify certain risk factors and cautionary statements that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in our forward-looking statements made this morning. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required by law. During this call, we also present a non-GAAP financial measure. There is a reconciliation included in our investor presentation. Joining me today are Clay Sell, our CEO; and Daniel Gross, our CFO. Clay will open today's call with an introduction to our company. He will also review highlights for 2026 year-to-date and provide operational updates. Daniel will then review our financial performance for the first quarter in more detail before turning it back to Clay for closing remarks. We will then open the call up to Q&A. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Clay. And for those of you following along with our presentation, please turn to Slide 3.

J. Sell

Executives
#3

Thank you, Patricia, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I'd like to begin by acknowledging this important day for X-Energy as we report our first quarterly earnings results as a public company. On April 24, we began trading on NASDAQ. And on April 27, we closed our IPO. This marked an exciting milestone on our journey to commercialize advanced nuclear technology at scale. We're grateful for the support of our investors, both new and old, and we look forward to partnering with all of you in this next chapter as a publicly traded company. Now before we dive in the updates from the quarter, I'd like to provide a bit of background on who we are and what we do here at X-Energy. We're a leader in advanced nuclear technology, committed to addressing the increasing power demands of today and tomorrow. Backed by decades of development and operational experience, we believe that our small modular reactor design and proprietary TRISO-X fuel are well matched to power the needs of AI revolution, industrial electrification, industrial process heat and growing power demand. Our technology has earned the support and capital commitment of high-quality blue-chip customers and partners like Dow, Amazon and Centrica. We are advancing the first deployment of our Xe-100 small modular reactor or SMR at Dow's Seadrift, Texas manufacturing facility. We are presently in advanced stages of regulatory review and believe we have a clear and compelling pathway toward approval. Once complete, the project is expected to be among the first grid-scale advanced nuclear power plants in North America and the first to provide industrial steam. As we scale from first-of-a-kind to Nth-of-a-kind, our success will be underpinned by an attractive business model. Our planned approach uses a combination of licensing fees, service fees and fuel sales to generate a long-term high-margin revenue stream. Revenue begins in the pre-commercial project planning stage and continues throughout the multi-decade lifetime of a plan. Our recent IPO has enhanced our liquidity profile, providing approximately $1.1 billion to derisk our supply chain and move projects forward. We are confident that we have the right team, the right technology and the right business model to succeed, and we are excited to continue this journey as a publicly traded company. I'll now ask you to turn to Slide 4. We've delivered an impressive first quarter and year-to-date filled with operational, regulatory and financial progress. Operationally, we reached collaboration frameworks for critical graphite supply and reactor components. We also agreed to explore the deployment of our Xe-100 SMR with subsidiaries of PPL Corporation in Kentucky and with Talen energy in the PJM market. On the regulatory front, we received our Part 70 commercial fuel fabrication license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under an initial 40-year license. This establishes our TX-1 and our planned TX-2 facilities as the first new commercial fuel fabrication facility licensed by the NRC in over 50 years. We also received our environmental assessment approval as part of Dow's construction permit application for their advanced nuclear project in Seadrift, Texas. We are delighted that the NRC's review was completed ahead of schedule following a comprehensive independent analysis, concluding with a finding of no significant impact, what you all know as FONSI. Earlier this week, we announced the submittal of our application to enter the United Kingdom's generic design assessment process for our Xe-100 power plant. To advance our commercial partnership with Centrica. This application is subject to acceptance and is intended to establish a regulatory pathway for licensing our new nuclear technologies, evaluating safety, security, safeguards and environmental impact independent of site-specific applications to enable a future fleet scale deployment in the U.K. Now these developments, along with our capital raising activities, support our strategic objectives to further secure our supply chain and continue strengthening relationships with our customers to commercialize and scale our technology. Our progress is made possible by our industry-leading technology and differentiated value proposition. I'll offer some background on these next and ask you to turn to Slide 5. Our proprietary TRISO-X fuel is underpinned by decades of research and development. Each TRISO pebble is about the size of a buyer ball and is comprised of approximately 19,000 uranium fuel kernels individually encapsulated in layers of carbon and silicon carbide. Approximately 220,000 pebbles form the core of each Xe-100 reactor, providing a more secure and efficient fuel source. The Department of Energy has called TRISO fuel, the most robust nuclear fuel on earth. Our integrated fuel fabrication business is core to our business model. Once constructed, our first advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee called TX-1 is expected to be North America's first purpose-built commercial advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility. It is being built with a 50-50 cost share in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy, helping to reduce the overall project risk. Fuel from the facility is expected to power our initial fleet of Xe-100 reactors. Now turning to Slide 6. The construction of TX-1 continues to progress. Full vertical construction began last September and is approximately 56% complete today. We expect to begin building out the interior in the third quarter of this year and anticipate operations to commence by the first half of 2028. In addition to our TX-1 facility, we are simultaneously in the design stage for our second facility, TX-2, which will be located on the same site. With the commercialization of TRISO-X fuel using our own manufacturing infrastructure, we are establishing a strong foundation for our integrated fuel fabrication business. Moving now to Slide 7. Our Xe-100 SMR is a fourth-generation high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor. It is designed to offer benefits over other technologies, including intrinsic safety features, a streamlined and scalable modular design and the ability to provide both electricity and high-temperature steam along with load following capabilities. With the Xe-100, we're unlocking a new range of applications for advanced nuclear from powering data centers to providing steam for manufacturing. We are focused on advancing the initial deployment of our Xe-100 power plant in partnership with Dow. In parallel, we are moving forward with projects for subsequent Xe-100 deployments through partnerships with Amazon and Centrica. These projects make up our 11 gigawatt plus commercial pipeline. Turning now to Slide 8. I'd like to walk you through the licensing process for the Dow project. Last spring, we and Dow worked to file the Construction Permit Application for this initial deployment of our reactors. This application has 2 components: a safety review and an environmental review. The NRC has completed its Draft Safety Evaluation Report, and we are on track for the next safety review milestone to be completed by August of this year. Regarding the environmental review, the NRC completed its Environmental Assessment ahead of schedule, concluding with a Finding of No Significant Impact, establishing an efficient process we expect to replicate for future projects. This project is expected to provide both electricity and high-temperature industrial steam to Dow's Seadrift operations, demonstrating the range of applications our technologies can address. It is expected to be the first grid-scale advanced nuclear reactor deployed to serve an industrial site in North America. We are committed to continuing to closely collaborate with the NRC and Dow to keep this project on schedule, and we expect final review of our construction permit to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2026 with issuance by the first quarter 2027. I'd like to now turn it over to Daniel Gross, our CFO, to discuss our financial results for the quarter in more detail.

Daniel Gross

Executives
#4

Thank you, Clay. Let's turn to Page 9. As this is our first earnings call since the IPO, I'd like to offer a little background on our primary source of revenue and grant income at the current stage of our development. In 2021, X-energy was awarded $1.2 billion under the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, or the ARDP. This program was created to accelerate the demonstration and deployment of advanced nuclear reactor technologies, and it provides us with a 50-50 public-private cost-sharing partnership for 3 things: first, finalizing and licensing our first Xe-100 design; second, building our TX-1 fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and third, executing our first project with Dow in Seadrift, Texas. Under ARDP, we've been reimbursed $508 million of federal cost share as of March 31, 2026. Our current budget period under ARDP runs from March of 2025 through August of 2026. So in these months leading up to August, our team is working in close partnership with the Department of Energy to jointly develop a strategy for either a budget period extension or a continuation to the next scope of work. Here's how the accounting for ARDP works. On our income statement, cost reimbursements related to finalizing and licensing our first Xe-100 design are recognized as revenue and cost reimbursements related to the Dow project are recognized as grant income. For TX-1, we capitalized the construction costs as plant, property and equipment, and we net out the associated ARDP cost reimbursements against our capital expenditures. Before I walk you through our financials for Q1 of 2026, let me offer a quick note on our legal structure. We completed our IPO on April 27. And prior to the IPO, our business operated as X-energy Reactor Company, LLC. And what you see reflected in the 10-Q are the financial statements of that entity. To facilitate the IPO, we created X-energy Inc. is the parent holding company and the sole managing member of X-energy Reactor Company, LLC. X-energy Inc. is the company that's listed on NASDAQ under the ticker XE. And going forward, X-energy Reactor Company's financials will be consolidated into X-energy Inc. But because the IPO happened in April after the end of Q1, our financials as of March 31 show results for the predecessor entity and its consolidated subsidiaries. With that context, here are the numbers. In Q1 of 2026, total revenues and grant income came in at $43.4 million. That's comprised of $39.9 million of services revenue associated primarily with the Xe-100 design activities under ARDP and $3.5 million of grant income associated with Dow's Demonstration Reactor under ARDP. Compared to Q1 of 2025, total revenues and grant income were up 109%. That increase was driven largely by higher services revenue from ARDP as we ramped up activity. Total operating expenses in Q1 of 2026 were $109.5 million, which includes $65.4 million of direct costs and $44.1 million of selling, general and administrative expenses, SG&A. Our total operating expenses increased 133% compared to Q1 of 2025, and this is primarily due to an increase in activity under the ARDP agreement, along with growth in employee headcount, contractor costs and professional fees. In Q1, the line called total other income expense net totaled $100.1 million and included a noncash mark-to-market loss of $101.8 million due to the exercise of a warrant that was issued in 2024 to one of our investors. Under U.S. GAAP, we remeasured the warrant liability to fair value prior to its exercise, which resulted in this mark-to-market loss during the first quarter. Turning to cash flow. Net cash used in operating activities in Q1 of 2026 was $67.3 million, up 61% from Q1 of 2025. That increase reflects higher ARDP activity, corporate headcount growth and an increase in enterprise software costs and corporate contractors. Net cash used in investing activities in Q1 of 2026 was $166.0 million, and that was primarily driven by the purchase of $189.9 million of investment securities. These are essentially cash reserves held in fixed income securities that mature in more than 3 months. Net cash used in investing activities also included $43 million of capital expenditures, which was offset by $28.8 million of ARDP reimbursements for construction of facilities, including TX-1. Turning to Slide 10. I'd like to walk you through our capital structure and balance sheet. As of March 31, 2026, our total liquidity was $944 million. This was comprised of $224 million of cash and cash equivalents, $450 million of short-term investments and $270 million of long-term investments. At the end of Q1, we had 0 debt outstanding. As you know, we completed our initial public offering in late April, meaning that it was a subsequent event for Q1 financials. We issued and sold 50.9 million shares of our Class A common stock at an offering price of $23 per share. And this includes the exercise of the underwriters' overallotment option, oftentimes called the greenshoe. Net proceeds of the IPO were approximately $1.1 billion, and this significantly strengthened our balance sheet and increased our total liquidity adjusted for IPO proceeds to approximately $2 billion. With that, I'll turn it back over to you, Clay.

J. Sell

Executives
#5

Thank you, Daniel. Please turn to Slide 11. We recognize that our projects are long-dated in nature and will take years to come online. Here, we provide you with a road map of our project work streams that extend into the early 2030s so that you can follow along with us on our progress. You will be noticing announcements from us from time to time as we progress through design, testing, regulation, procurement, construction and other necessary steps required for project development. This illustrative logic will allow you to track how we plan to derisk these projects and advance across the many milestones required to reach commercial operation dates. On Slide 12, we've provided a snapshot of key near-term milestones that we are focused on delivering over the next 18 months. You'll note that we've already achieved important milestones this year for our TX-1 commercial fuel license and Dow's Seadrift project, as I mentioned earlier. Our next near-term milestones for you to follow relate to construction progress on our TX-1 fuel facility, Dow Construction Permit Issuances and Energy Northwest Construction Permit Application. And as we look to further scale and build our commercial pipeline, we also expect to announce our next 1 gigawatt project sometime in 2026. We are building a project pipeline that we're proud of, and it makes clear our strong role in the future of nuclear we're seeing today. Moving to Slide 13. We believe that X-energy offers a compelling value proposition. Our industry-leading technology is elegantly designed with intrinsic safety features and offers reliable, clean baseload energy to serve an unmatched range of applications. Our business model is differentiated in that we already have capital commitments from a solid base of customers and partners along with cost share support from the U.S. government. And our market positioning puts us in an excellent spot to meet growing power demand from AI data centers and industrial manufacturing. In closing, we're grateful for the dedication of our talented X-energy employees and we'll continue to work hand-in-hand with the Department of Energy, regulatory agencies and partners to advance the commercialization of our technology at scale. And with that, we will now take your questions.

Operator

Operator
#6

[Operator Instructions] Your first question today is from Marc Bianchi with TD Cowen.

Marc Bianchi

Analysts
#7

Congrats on becoming public. I guess the first one I had was on the next 1 gigawatt project. The first one is just a clarification here on Slide 12, site identified and JDA signed, that's your criteria for having something be a next gigawatt project. Is that correct? Or are you saying that you actually have a site and there is a JDA, you just haven't announced that yet?

J. Sell

Executives
#8

The criteria for announcing this, Marc, is exactly as you said. Once we have the site identified an agreement to develop the project in place with our customer, that's when we consider it in addition to our commercial pipeline.

Marc Bianchi

Analysts
#9

Yes. Great. And then related to that, we've got Cowen and PPL that you've announced some discussions with more recently here. And is it more likely that it comes out of those? Or are there several other discussions that are ongoing that you just haven't publicly shared? And if there's any way to provide more color on what that pipeline looks like, I'd be interested.

J. Sell

Executives
#10

Yes, happy to do it. As you know, we have a number of conversations well underway. We -- for a set of reasons related for just some reasons between us and Talen and us and PPL, we decided to make early announcements as on the front end of the site feasibility determining process with Talen and PPL. But with other customers, we've made no public announcements. And I think the key thing for you to look for is when we come up and we will tell you, here's the site, here's the customer. We're in a joint development agreement. And quite frankly, we will clarify with you at that time, hey, this is part of the Amazon pipeline or this is incremental and new pipeline that we're adding.

Marc Bianchi

Analysts
#11

Okay. That's great. And then maybe one for Daniel on the financial performance in 1Q and sort of the expectation going forward. If I look at cash from operations is a use of about $67 million. And then if I take kind of the net of CapEx and grant reimbursements, it's another $14 million use, so kind of $80 million overall in the quarter. Is that sort of the quarterly cash use run rate? Or how should we be thinking about that as we progress through '26 and beyond?

Daniel Gross

Executives
#12

Yes. I don't think it would be appropriate, Marc, for you to just take that trajectory or that slope for Q1 and straight line it over the year. We are accelerating our construction activities, and we are onboarding additional headcount, particularly on the engineering side. to complete the design work. So I would not straight line that. That said, we're not providing forward-looking guidance on exactly where those expenses will be in Q2.

Operator

Operator
#13

Our next question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonet with JPMorgan.

Jeremy Tonet

Analysts
#14

Just wanted to build on the customer conversation a bit here. I was wondering if you could talk a bit more on the types of customers you're having these conversations with, where you see more interest, be it utilities, industrials, the key focus as they think about X-energy versus other computing technologies or even other SMRs. Just wondering if you could provide a little bit more color on that.

J. Sell

Executives
#15

Yes. It is hyperscaler-driven conversations, IPP-driven conversations to support Amazon or others. It is utility-driven conversations, and it is industrial heat-driven conversations. Today, largely in the 3 markets of our initial focus, U.S., Canada and the U.K. But there is certainly interest beyond that, but our focus today is on the near-term possibilities of the ilk I've just described in our 3 initial markets.

Jeremy Tonet

Analysts
#16

Got it. That makes sense. And I guess in these conversations, how do you frame the value proposition as it relates to where LCOE could fall out or otherwise? Just wondering if you could talk a bit about that, granted we're early here, but just any flavor on color you could provide.

J. Sell

Executives
#17

Well, this really goes to how we determine the quality of our sponsors. As you know, in our business model, we are in the business of selling our technology selling fuel and selling associated services to a project sponsor that has the capability, the balance sheet, the need and the expertise to bring these projects to fruition. And so like having sponsors of that quality is a key metric. But it's also really derivative of the markets in which they need the power and ensuring that the market has the industrial logic to support our first-of-a-kind or early-of-a-kind projects. For example, in the Bonville power market, where we're building our second project with Energy Northwest and Amazon, that is to support a data center load in Northern Oregon that is -- when you look at the forward projections for power prices in that region are on the high side vis-a-vis other regions in the United States. And so that's a -- that can give you some level of guidance as to where our first projects will come in, and we fully anticipate that as we move down the cost curve and build more projects, our technology will be widely and economically attractive in other lower-cost markets around the country.

Operator

Operator
#18

Our next question comes from the line of David Arcaro with Morgan Stanley.

David Arcaro

Analysts
#19

Congratulations on the first quarter being public here. Going back maybe to the -- your comments about the next 1 gigawatt project. I was just wondering what gives you the confidence that you can get that next one over the finish line for this year? Is this a single potential counterparty that seems to be very advanced with you in terms of discussions such that you could finalize that this year? Or is it -- when you look at the pipeline, you've got a number of opportunities and you see the potential for one to filter up to the top this year?

J. Sell

Executives
#20

David, I'm not looking to make one single shot on goal and hit it. We've got multiple, multiple conversations underway, and we're confident at least one of those we'll be able to announce by the end of the year. I mean you can really think of it in terms of a business development funneling process so that we ensure our resources are going to the most credible, viable project that we can have confidence we'll get to the start line so we can get to the finish line.

David Arcaro

Analysts
#21

Excellent. I got you. That's helpful. And I was wondering if you could give an update on the Energy Northwest project and the time line from here. It looked like the submission of the construction permit may have shifted. I wanted to check on that and just what the overall time line looks like now relative to your expectations.

J. Sell

Executives
#22

Yes. So Energy Northwest, we're largely in doing site engineering and preparation work to support the construction permit application. It is our fast follower project. We did -- we are now indicating that the application will go in, in the first half of '27. I should emphasize to you that is not within our control at X-energy. In our business model, it's under the control of our customers, in this case, Energy Northwest. But certainly, the work that we are doing will support that submission. The final thing I want to emphasize is regulatory is not on the critical path for our projects. So the fact that it is -- that we're following it in the first half of '27 versus fourth quarter of '26 is not going to impact the overall schedule. One thing that I think we will benefit from, as we've guided to, we do expect to have a final construction permit issuance from the NRC in the first quarter of '27 on our first Dow project. So being able to incorporate all of the learnings from the NRC from that first Dow construction permit application and ensure those learnings are incorporated into the Energy Northwest application will give us and it will give our customer greater confidence that they can execute on an increasingly shorter regulatory review time line.

Operator

Operator
#23

Our next question comes from the line of Paul Zimbardo with Jefferies.

Paul Zimbardo

Analysts
#24

First, just to clarify, apologies, it wasn't crystal clear to me. The 1 gigawatt announcement you expect in 2026, is that part of the 11.5 gigawatt pipeline? Or would that be incremental to that pipeline?

J. Sell

Executives
#25

We will -- when we announce projects and add them to the pipeline, we will be clear, Paul, on this is part of the Amazon 5 gigawatts or it is incremental to that. So we'll make that clear when we announce the projects.

Paul Zimbardo

Analysts
#26

Okay. Great. No, that is clear. And then I want to touch on the U.K. and kind of 2 parts to it. What's the regulatory path for Centrica approval we should be monitoring? And just broadly, are there other U.K. opportunities beyond Centrica that we should be monitoring as well?

J. Sell

Executives
#27

Okay. So here's what is happening on Centrica. The U.K. government has announced an alternative route to the market process, they announced that in February this year, and Centrica and X-energy together put in our proposal to the government in March. I think we were the first one -- I know we were the first one, and I don't know if anyone has followed us into that process. We have received extraordinary level of encouragement and support from the highest levels of the U.K. government. So we are now in that process. And the goal of this process is for the U.K. government to identify the levels of support that will be appropriate and required to see this project come to fruition. And those discussions are underway. And when we get to a conclusion of that, we will make an announcement as to what the approach of the U.K. government is going to be in terms of supporting our project pre-FID and supporting the construction financing of the project. So that's one aspect of it as it relates to the ultimate financing of the projects. The second aspect relates to the regulatory approval. And as you saw this week, we filed -- we initiated Phase 1 of the general design approval process at the office of Nuclear Regulation in the U.K. So you can think of this as the beginning of a Part 52 like process to certify the design, but it's in 3 phases. And the first phase will complete in the next -- sometime by the end of the year. And then we'll move into the subsequent phases that will further allow the regulator to get comfortable with our technology so that it can be licensed in the U.K. We'll have an opportunity to pivot out of that process to either stay and do a full general design approval or pivot to a site-specific license approach over the course of the next couple of years. And so the important thing is that we are getting this process initiated, getting the regulator comfortable and we'll have full optionality with our sponsor, Centrica, as to the exact licensing approach we want to take. Finally, I'll note, we have been engaged with the regulator in the U.K. for the last couple of years in terms of early educational efforts. And so we start from a good place. And as you know, we remain highly enthusiastic about the unique opportunity that we have with such a stellar partner in Centrica to build a substantial fleet of reactors in what is honestly a high-priced power market that needs this solution.

Operator

Operator
#28

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Sullivan with Wolfe Research.

Michael Sullivan

Analysts
#29

Congrats on the first call. I was just -- maybe to start just on the licensing and approval side of things. Curious your thoughts on the Part 57 that the NRC recently introduced and if that could be relevant to you all and the potential implications?

J. Sell

Executives
#30

Thanks, Michael. Maybe. We're evaluating that. It's still early days, but maybe. I have -- I'll tell you, I've been around the NRC for a long time. And I've never harbored as much enthusiasm to the possibilities of what is happening as I do today. I've been telling investors for some time, this is not the same NRC that you looked at 10 years ago. It's very different. And so I think the opportunities to get these new technologies to the marketplace in an appropriate level of time with an appropriate level of regulation to ensure public health and safety is a really, really exciting opportunity. So we love the Part 53 initiative, the Part 57 initiative. We're evaluating all of those. But I'll tell you, we're very comfortable also with the reformed -- the highly reformed Part 50 process that we're executing against now. So good things are happening at the NRC. This administration deserves a lot of credit for making them happen.

Michael Sullivan

Analysts
#31

Okay. Great. Yes. No, very helpful. And maybe just like on the supply chain fuel side, it was good to see you got the commercial fuel license earlier this year. Can you give us any sense of where else in the supply chain you're looking to invest with some of the cash you have? And then just more broadly, like for the industry, how you're thinking about domestic HALEU production ramping?

J. Sell

Executives
#32

Yes. The other areas -- I mean, you can look at some of the previous announcements that we've made as it relates to the large steel forgings and the graphite lining of our reactor core, those -- we've already made announcements. We're continuing to ensure that we have appropriate access to the capacity that our customers will need to scale. And so that's really an important part of our strategy going forward. And you should expect to see additional announcements from us as to what we are doing to secure aspects of the supply chain. Now specifically on HALEU, I'll just remind the listeners, we've secured the first core of material from the Department of Energy for our first project at Dow. So first core for the first 4 units at Dow has been secured through a commitment with the Department of Energy for 7.6 tons of material. The first 4 of that has been specifically identified to us. The remaining 3.5 will be identified in the coming months. We are also in -- we are engaged with enrichers in the U.K. and in the U.S. as to how we can ensure that our future customers have access to the enrichment capabilities that will be required to fuel their reactors. I am -- I have a good degree of confidence that the enrichment supplies from Urenco, from General Matter, from Centrus, will be available to the marketplace in the early 2030s when we'll need it for our subsequent cores and our new projects.

Operator

Operator
#33

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Derek Soderberg with Cantor Fitzgerald.

Derek Soderberg

Analysts
#34

I'm curious on the fuel side, how many reactors does TX-1 support at steady state? Is it roughly a dozen or so? And then I'm wondering if projects sort of convert faster, when might you guys sort of move forward with the construction of TX-2?

J. Sell

Executives
#35

The answer to your first question is yes. It's -- we say 11 reactors at steady state. You said approximately a dozen, so we'll call it even. We are -- Derek, as I'll remind you, when we got our license our fuel handling license for TX-1, it also included our expansion facility TX-2. And our expansion facility is 4x the capacity of our first facility. So you can deduce that, that would take us up to 55 reactors steady-state support from the full build-out of our facility in Oak Ridge. That facility is in the planning and design phases so that we will be in a position to commence construction on that so that it will be available for our customers when we need it. And that's been our plan all along.

Derek Soderberg

Analysts
#36

Got it. Got it. And then just on financing some of these new projects and financing projects going forward. Will you guys take on any balance sheet risk or development risk? Or is the plan really still to keep that exposure strictly to the technology and fuel layers?

Daniel Gross

Executives
#37

Yes. Our business model is for our customers to be taking on the balance sheet risk associated with the construction of energy-related power plants. X-energy's balance sheet exposure is limited to our fuel manufacturing facilities, TX-1 and TX-2 that you inquired about and then the testing facilities that we are constructing prior to putting in service our first reactor in Seadrift, Texas.

Operator

Operator
#38

And I'm currently showing no further questions at this time. I'd now like to hand the call back over to Clay Sell for closing remarks.

J. Sell

Executives
#39

Well, I really appreciate everyone joining us today. We're happy to be at this stage in our company's life. I enjoyed taking the questions. I hope you found the presentation useful. And we'll -- we really look forward to sharing news and updates in the coming quarters, and we'll keep this show going. Thank you very much for participating with us today.

Operator

Operator
#40

This concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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