By Timothy Gardner

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.O 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 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 DOW.N 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)

((timothy.gardner@thomsonreuters.com))