More semiconductor, nuclear energy expansion in central Texas

“Texas is the hub for semiconductor innovation,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement. Ongoing TSIF grants are helping to “strengthen a critical domestic supply chain for advanced semiconductor chip manufacturing in our state. Texas is where the technologies of today power the innovation of the future.”

QGT, a subsidiary of Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc., provides ultra-high purity parts cleaning, process tool part recoating, and high-sensitivity micro contamination analysis for semiconductor device makers and wafer fabrication equipment markets. Its new facility will become Ultra Clean’s first location in North America equipped to service semiconductor fabrication chamber tool sets used in the production of 2nm chips that power next-generation technologies.

A $3.9 million TSIF grant was also awarded to Schunk Xycarb Technology Inc. (Xycarb) to expand its production facility in Georgetown. Xycarb says it’s making a $42 million capital investment and this project will create 25 new jobs. 

Xycarb, part of the global Schunk Xycarb Group, manufactures and refurbishes silicon carbide coated graphite, quartz, ceramic, and silicon components used in semiconductor wafer processing. The expansion project will double its square footage, increase production and cleanroom space and add further automation capabilities.

The TSIF is an outworking of the Texas CHIPS Act, enacted in 2023. It created the Texas CHIPS Office and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium. It also allocated $700 million for the TISF fund and established grants, The Center Square reported. 

Texas A&M is also expanding semiconductor research in College Station, also having received a $13 million TSIF grant last month, The Center Square reported. In April, Abbott participated in a groundbreaking of the future site of a new Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute facility being built on the RELLIS campus. 

Multiple nuclear energy projects are also underway on several college campuses in Texas, including at Abilene Christian University, Texas A&M’s RELLIS campus and the University of Texas-Austin and San Antonio, The Center Square reported.

Several are advancing small modular reactors (SMR), which use liquid fuel dissolved in a molten salt mixture, operate at high temperatures and low pressure to enhance safety and efficiency, use several fuel types, and produce far less waste than conventional nuclear reactor designs, engineers have explained. 

The 2,400-acre technology and innovation RELLIS campus in Bryan, Texas, is one of them, working with Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Terrestrial Energy and Aalo Atomics to build SMRs.

New agreements were signed with Terrestrial Energy, Texas A&M announced, to advance the development of its SMR on more than 77 acres at the RELLIS campus. Environmental evaluations, testing and research activity connected to Terrestrial Energy’s Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) will be conducted at the site. The SMR will use IMSR technology, which Terrestrial says will provide reliable heat and electricity for industrial and power-generation uses.

RELLIS’ Energy Proving Ground was established to “give advanced energy companies access to land for planning demonstrations and commercial operations, research expertise, testing capacity and workforce partnerships within one of the nation’s largest public university systems,” Texas A&M explains.

The U.S. Department of Energy also selected Terrestrial Energy for its Reactor Pilot Program after the Trump administration approved testing of advanced reactor designs outside of national laboratories.

Nuclear engineering and education programs have existed at Texas' higher education institutions for more than 50 years. However, Texas has a three- to five-year window to fill more than 10,000 advanced nuclear jobs for new nuclear power projects being developed statewide, the University of Texas-Austin’s Nuclear and Radiation Engineering Program explains. 

“This demand for talent – concentrated in construction trades, nuclear technicians, operational staff, and four-year technical graduates – far exceeds the capacity of current in-state education and training pipelines and requires years to develop,” it says in its new report, “Cultivating Homegrown Nuclear Talent in Texas,” it says.  

Nuclear engineering and education programs are also expanding through high school STEM programs, homeschool and other programs to educate students about nuclear science.