Early this year, Natural Resources Canada began a process to prepare a roadmap to guide exploration of the potential of on-grid and off-grid applications for small modular reactors (SMRs). Canada wants to be a leader in the SMR marketplace. The Canadian National Laboratories has established a goal of building and operating an SMR at its Chalk River site by 2026. Canadian company Terrestrial Energy began a feasibility study in June of 2017 for siting the first commercial Integrated Molten Salt Reactor at Chalk River. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is currently pre-licensing vendor design reviews for ten small reactors in the three to three hundred megawatt range.
On June 26th, the government of the Canadian Province of New Brunswick announced that it was committing seven million five hundred thousand dollars to assist the New Brunswick Energy Solutions Corporation (NBESC) in establishing a nuclear research cluster in New Brunswick (NB). The Point Lepreau nuclear power plant is located in NB. NB wants to become a leader in the research and development of SMRs.
The NBESC is a joint venture between the New Brunswick provincial government and NB Power which operates the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant. It was formed to investigate energy export possibilities.
It was announced last week that Advanced Reactor Concepts (ARC) would be the first partner in the NBESC nuclear research cluster. ARC is working on the ARC-100 which is a one hundred megawatt integrated sodium-cooled fast reactor with a metallic uranium alloy core.
Moltex Energy is a UK based company that is the second partner in the new research cluster in NB that is dedicated to the research and development of small modular reactors. Moltex has signed a contract with New Brunswick Energy Solutions Corporation and NB Power.
The agreement signed by Moltex provides three million eight hundred thousand dollars for immediate development activities. Moltex will open its North American headquarters in Saint John where they will put together their development team. The contract calls for Moltex to deploy its first Stable Salt Reactor – Wasteburner (SSR-W) at the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant before 2030.
The Moltex SSR is based on a design developed in the U.K. It contains no pumps. Instead, it utilizes convection from static vertical fuel tubes in the core to transfer heat to the steam generators. The fuel assemblies are positioned in the center of a tank that is half filled with coolant salt. The coolant salt moves the heat away from the fuel assemblies to the steam generators which are on the periphery of the tank. The core temperature in the SSR will operate in a range from about nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit to a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Unlike most common commercial nuclear reactors, the system operates at normal atmospheric pressure. Moltex has also developed the GridRerserve molten salt storage heat concept which would allow their reactor to store energy from intermittent renewable sources.
Moltex submitted both a fast version and a thermal version of their SSR to the U.K. competition for SMR designs. It has applied for Phase 1 of the Vendor Design Review with the CNSC. Its focus for commercial product development is aimed at the Canadian energy market.
The Moltex CEO said, “The Moltex stable salt reactor technology is a perfect fit for New Brunswick's power needs. It uses spent nuclear fuel, which could help solve the province's future spent-fuel disposal challenge. It is a physically small modular reactor but is able to store energy, so can double or triple its output at peak demand times during the day. Most importantly, the stable salt reactor technology produces very low-cost, clean energy and can reduce the cost of electricity to consumers while achieving low-carbon targets. We are very excited to join our new partners and establish our North American headquarters in New Brunswick."
The Provincial Energy and Resource Development Minister said, “We are positioning New Brunswick as a leader in small modular reactor development and deployment in Canada on a global scale. We are looking to grow our economy while we transition to a lower-carbon environment, and partners like Moltex have the ability to make advancements in the energy sector.”
The NB Power CEO said, “This represents the second significant private sector partner in nuclear technology, research and potential development to join the recently established nuclear research cluster at the University of New Brunswick. It shows that, here in New Brunswick, we can be leaders in developing energy solutions that will not only help meet energy needs but provide great opportunities for development and exports.”