OAK RIDGE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 5, 2025--
X-energy Reactor Company, LLC (“X-energy” or the “Company”), and its wholly-owned subsidiary, TRISO-X LLC (“TRISO-X”), today announced the selection of Clark Construction Group to complete the building construction phase of its first-in-the-nation advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility (“TX-1”) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. TX-1 is the first of two planned facilities at X-energy’s site in Oak Ridge that will manufacture X-energy’s proprietary tristructural-isotropic (“TRISO”) fuel for X-energy’s first commercial deployment of the Xe-100 in partnership with the Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) on the Texas Gulf Coast, as well as subsequent deployments.
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The $48.2 million award is part of X-energy's participation in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (“ARDP”), and encompasses the Phase 2A of the facility construction, including the completion of the core and shell of the 214,812 square foot facility. Construction on this next phase is expected to begin in September following the completion of site preparation work. In parallel, X-energy has also received approval from the Department of Energy to authorize an additional approximately $30 million for early procurement of critical long-lead equipment and materials to support the successful delivery of subsequent construction phases, and ensure adherence to the overall project schedule.
“This milestone marks another step forward in ensuring a secure, domestic supply of fuel for the next generation of nuclear reactors,” said Joel Duling, President of TRISO-X. “TX-1 will be the first facility of its kind in the nation, addressing a critical gap in the current U.S. nuclear fuel cycle, and bolstering U.S. energy independence with American technology and innovation.”
Speaking on the announcement, members of Tennessee’s Congressional Delegation highlighted the significance of the TX-1 facility and expressed strong support for its role in advancing American energy independence and innovation:
“X-energy’s investment in Oak Ridge is a major win for Tennessee and a critical step in securing America’s energy future,” said U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn. “Tennessee is leading the way in advanced nuclear technology, and this milestone project will create jobs, boost American energy independence, and strengthen our national security.”
“I am pleased to see that Tennessee and Oak Ridge continue to be at the forefront of our country’s nuclear leadership. This is an exciting announcement, and I congratulate X-Energy and all of those involved. This $48.2 million investment will create new jobs, further investments, and advance energy production.” said U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty.
“Congratulations to X-energy on their continued success in the nuclear industry. Nuclear energy is the past, present, and future, and Oak Ridge is its birthplace. I am proud to represent Oak Ridge in Congress, and it continues to attract the world’s brightest minds. As Chair of the Energy and Water Appropriations Committee, it is my mission for America to lead the world in nuclear innovation,” said Rep. Chuck Fleischmann.
Once complete, TX-1 will be the first Category 2 Fuel Fabrication Facility licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”) in the United States with an estimated output of 5 metric tons of uranium (“MTU”) or 700,000 TRISO pebbles per year, enough fuel for up to 11 Xe-100 reactors. In parallel to the construction process, TRISO-X continues to engage closely with the NRC to support an efficient and thorough review and anticipates regulatory approval by May 2026. TRISO fuel has been described by the Department of Energy as, “the most robust nuclear fuel in the world,” designed to withstand temperatures far beyond those reached during operating or upset conditions.
X-energy is advancing its initial Xe-100 plant at Dow Inc.’s UCC Seadrift Operations manufacturing site on the Texas Gulf Coast. Once complete, the plant is expected to provide the site with safe, reliable, and clean power and industrial steam. X-energy is also advancing its second plant with Energy Northwest in collaboration with Amazon. This project is part of a larger strategy with Amazon to bring more than five gigawatts of new power projects online by 2039, furthering the company’s mission to provide scalable, secure, clean energy solutions that meet the growing demand for energy across the U.S. and around the world.
About X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC
X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC, is a leading developer of advanced small modular nuclear reactors and fuel technology for clean energy generation that is redefining the nuclear energy industry through its development of safer and more efficient advanced small modular nuclear reactors and proprietary fuel to deliver reliable, zero-carbon and affordable energy to people around the world. X-energy’s simplified, modular, and intrinsically safe SMR design expands applications and markets for deployment of nuclear technology and drives enhanced safety, lower cost and faster construction timelines when compared with other SMRs and conventional nuclear. For more information, visit X-energy.com or connect with us on X or LinkedIn.
A rendering of X-energy’s TX-1 advanced nuclear fuel manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
LONDON (AP) — With one puff of a cigarette, a woman in Canada became a global symbol of defiance against Iran's bloody crackdown on dissent — and the world saw the flame.
A video that has gone viral in recent days shows the woman — who described herself as an Iranian refugee — snapping open a lighter and setting the flame to a photo she holds. It ignites, illuminating the visage of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest cleric. Then the woman dips a cigarette into the glow, takes a quick drag — and lets what remains of the image fall to the pavement.
Whether staged or a spontaneous act of defiance — and there’s plenty of debate — the video has become one of the defining images of the protests in Iran against the Islamic Republic’s ailing economy, as U.S. President Donald Trump considers military action in the country again.
The gesture has jumped from the virtual world to the real one, with opponents of the regime lighting cigarettes on photos of the ayatollah from Israel to Germany and Switzerland to the United States.
In the 34 seconds of footage, many across platforms like X, Instagram and Reddit saw one person defy a series of the theocracy’s laws and norms in a riveting act of autonomy. She wears no hijab, three years after the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests against the regime’s required headscarves.
She burns an image of Iran’s supreme leader, a crime in the Islamic republic punishable by death. Her curly hair cascades — yet another transgression in the Iranian government’s eyes. She lights a cigarette from the flame — a gesture considered immodest in Iran.
And in those few seconds, circulated and amplified a million times over, she steps into history.
In 2026, social media is a central battleground for narrative control over conflicts. Protesters in Iran say the unrest is a demonstration against the regime’s strictures and competence. Iran has long cast it as a plot by outsiders like United States and Israel to destabilize the Islamic Republic.
And both sides are racing to tell the story of it that will endure.
Iranian state media announces wave after wave of arrests by authorities, targeting those it calls “terrorists” and also apparently looking for Starlink satellite internet dishes, the only way to get videos and images out to the internet. There was evidence on Thursday that the regime’s bloody crackdown had somewhat smothered the dissent after activists said it had killed at least 2,615 people. That figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the mayhem of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Social media has bloomed with photos of people lighting cigarettes from photos of Iran’s leader. “Smoke ’em if you got ’em. #Iran,” posted Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana.
In the age of AI, misinformation and disinformation, there’s abundant reason to question emotionally and politically charged images. So when “the cigarette girl” appeared online this month, plenty of users did just that.
It wasn’t immediately clear, for example, whether she was lighting up inside Iran or somewhere with free-speech protections as a sign of solidarity. Some spotted a background that seemed to be in Canada. She confirmed that in interviews. But did her collar line up correctly? Was the flame realistic? Would a real woman let her hair get so close to the fire?
Many wondered: Is the “cigarette girl” an example of “psyops?” That, too, is unclear. That’s a feature of warfare and statecraft as old as human conflict, in which an image or sound is deliberately disseminated by someone with a stake in the outcome. From the allies’ fake radio broadcasts during World War II to the Cold War’s nuclear missile parades, history is rich with examples.
The U.S. Army doesn’t even hide it. The 4th Psychological Operations Group out of Ft. Bragg in North Carolina last year released a recruitment video called, “Ghost in the Machine 2 that’s peppered with references to “PSYWAR.”And the Gaza war featured a ferocious battle of optics: Hamas forced Israeli hostages to publicly smile and pose before being released, and Israel broadcast their jubilant reunions with family and friends.
Whatever the answer, the symbolism of the Iranian woman's act was powerful enough to rocket around the world on social media — and inspire people at real-life protests to copy it.
The woman did not respond to multiple efforts by The Associated Press to confirm her identity. But she has spoken to other outlets, and AP confirmed the authenticity of those interviews.
On X, she calls herself a “radical feminist” and uses the handle Morticia Addams —- after the exuberantly creepy matriarch of “The Addams Family” — sheerly out of her interest in “spooky things,” the woman said in an interview with the nonprofit outlet The Objective.
She doesn’t allow her real name to be published for safety reasons after what she describes as a harrowing journey from being a dissident in Iran — where she says she was arrested and abused — to safety in Turkey. There, she told The Objective, she obtained a student visa for Canada. Now, in her mid-20s, she said she has refugee status in and lives in Toronto.
It was there, on Jan. 7, that she filmed what’s become known as “the cigarette girl” video a day before the Iranian regime imposed a near-total internet blackout.
“I just wanted to tell my friends that my heart, my soul was with them,” she said in an interview on CNN-News18, a network affiliate in India.
In the interviews, the woman said she was arrested for the first time at 17 during the “bloody November” protests of 2019, demonstrations that erupted after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal that Iran had struck with world powers that imposed crushing sanctions.
“I was strongly opposed to the Islamic regime,” she told The Objective. Security forces “arrested me with tasers and batons. I spent a night in a detention center without my family knowing where I was or what had happened to me.” Her family eventually secured her release by offering a pay slip for bail. “I was under surveillance from that moment on.”
In 2022 during the protests after the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, she said she participated in a YouTube program opposing the mandatory hijab and began receiving calls from blocked numbers threatening her. In 2024, after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash, she shared her story about it — and was arrested in her home in Isfahan.
The woman said she was questioned and “subjected to severe humiliation and physical abuse.” Then without explanation, she was released on a high bail. She fled to Turkey and began her journey to Canada and, eventually, global notoriety.
“All my family members are still in Iran, and I haven’t heard from them in a few days,” she said in the interview, published Tuesday. “I’m truly worried that the Islamic regime might attack them.”
A demonstrator lights a cigarette with a burning poster depicting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in support of Iran's anti-government protests, in Holon, Israel Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
CORRECTS MONTH - A protester lights a cigarette off a burning poster of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a demonstration in Berlin, Germany, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A protester burns an image of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with a cigarette during rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 in Zuerich, Switzerland.(Michael Buholzer /Keystone via AP)
