The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its environmental assessment for the Long Mott Generating Station, a proposed four-reactor Xe-100 project at Dow’s Seadrift, Texas site.

A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) was issued after the review wrapped up in under a year.

The NRC has dramatically shortened review timelines across multiple advanced reactor projects in recent months. We have previously covered how the agency has cut license renewal times by roughly half and completed several first-of-a-kind reviews well ahead of historical norms.

The Long Mott project is backed by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). The four reactors are intended to supply power to Dow’s large chemical manufacturing operations, with the potential for high-temperature process steam to be explored at a later stage. 

If completed, it would be among the first grid-scale advanced reactors dedicated to serving an industrial site in North America.

The project still faces a recent regulatory nuisance. In February, the NRC granted intervention to the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper on a contention that Long Mott Energy, the Dow subsidiary developing the project, has not sufficiently demonstrated its financial qualifications.

The assertion is hard to take seriously. Dow is one of the largest chemical companies in the world, and X-energy counts Amazon among its major backers. Yet the financial qualifications issue will now proceed to a hearing.

Other contentions raised by Waterkeeper, including challenges related to the reactor design and environmental impacts, were rejected by the Board.

For now, the Long Mott project has cleared one of the more visible early hurdles. The financial qualifications hearing will likely result in dismissal, but not until after Waterkeeper has made every attempt possible to delay the project.