Moltex Energy has joined the Nuclear Energy Institute, the largest and most prominent trade association for the nuclear industry in the United States.
Moltex, based in Saint John, N.B., is developing a small modular reactor that runs on recycled nuclear waste, and a nuclear waste recycling facility.
NB Power has selected the Moltex Stable Salt Reactor – Wasteburner (SSR-W) as one of two reactors it intends to build at the Point Lepreau site. The other is the ARC Clean Energy Canada Inc. ARC-100 SMR.
According to Moltex, by the time the current fleet of nuclear reactors reach end-of-life in the United States, there will be enough nuclear waste to power approximately 20 GW of SSR-W units.
“Our technology is very well-suited to the U.S. market, given their significant and growing stockpiles of nuclear waste,” said Rory O’Sullivan, CEO for North America at Moltex Energy. “With our technology, we can turn nuclear waste that would otherwise be destined for expensive, long-term storage into more clean energy.”
Considerable research and development is already ongoing in the U.S. With a combined $7 million USD in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, Moltex is working on validation experiments with Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Electric Power Research Institute, Purdue University and Vanderbilt University.
Moltex recently received $50.5 million from the Government of Canada to advance the development of its technology.
Other notable markets for Moltex include France, which will have enough nuclear waste to power 9 GW of SSR-W units, Japan (8 GW), South Korea (5 GW) and the UK (5 GW).