WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - X-energy, a company aiming

to develop high-tech nuclear plants, said on Thursday it has

closed $700 million in financing to help finish reactor design

and licensing as well as construction of a fuel-making facility.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

X-energy is one of several companies that have signed deals

with big tech companies as artificial intelligence boosts U.S.

power demand for the first time in decades. Amazon.com ( AMZN )

said in October it is leading a funding round of $500 million to

support X-energy's development of small modular reactors SMRs.

That funding has now grown to $700 million with the addition of

Segra Capital Management, Jane Street, Ares Management funds,

Emerson Collective and others.

Amazon ( AMZN ) and X-energy hope to bring more than 5 gigawatts of

new power projects online across the U.S. by 2039, about the

capacity of five traditional nuclear power plants.

CONTEXT

Backers of SMRs say they will be cheaper than today's larger

reactors because they can be built in factories making

standardized parts. Traditional reactors are built on site.

Despite decades of hope for commercial SMRs, none exist yet

in the United States. The plants will produce long-lasting

radioactive waste, for which there is no permanent U.S.

repository.

X-energy is in the pre-application phase for its Xe-100 SMR

technology with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is

unclear when it will get approvals from the NRC which can take

years to process applications.

X-energy is also developing its initial SMR at a Dow

manufacturing site in Texas, and a fuel-making plant in

Tennessee.

KEY QUOTE

"We look forward to continuing to advance and scale our

technology and realize our vision of fulfilling the growing

energy needs of future generations," said Kam Ghaffarian,

X-energy's founder and executive chairman.

BY THE NUMBERS

X-energy plants are expected to range in size from 320

megawatts to 960 MW with each reactor being 80 MW.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Muralikumar

Anantharaman)