Uniper Sweden, LeadCold and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm announced in February 2021 they would collaborate on exploring the possibility of constructing a demonstration LeadCold Sealer (Swedish Advanced Lead Reactor) plant at Oskarshamn, in southeast Sweden, by 2030.
They also said they had applied to the Swedish Energy Agency for a grant of SEK125 million towards building a non-nuclear prototype at Oskarshamn, a nuclear site where two units have been shut down and one remains in commercial operation.
The goal of the collaboration is the commercialisation of Sealer reactors in Sweden in the 2030s.
The Swedish Energy Agency, a government body, has now awarded the partners SEK99 million towards building an electrically powered non-nuclear prototype Sealer plant at Oskarshamn for testing and verifying materials and technology. The 1:56 scale prototype will be operated for five years starting in 2024.
LeadCold is a spin-off from KTH, where one of the company’s founders, Janne Wallenius, carried out research on design and safety analysis on lead-cooled reactor systems since 1996.
Sealer is a 3-10 MW lead-cooled fast reactor operating on 19.9.% enriched UO2 fuel. It was designed for commercial production of electricity in rural communities and mining operations. Small nuclear power plants hold the potential to replace diesel in such regions, at a competitive cost. They eliminate the need for onsite fuel-cycle operations through the use of a long-life core.
LeadCold said the most important advantage of using liquid lead as coolant is that it allows the design to be highly compact format with “an outstanding set of safety features”.
According to LeadCold, the Sealer technology can be of two types: one for Arctic applications and a second, known as the Sealer 55, for on-grid use.
The Arctic version would use 2.4 tonnes of 19.9% enriched uranium oxide fuel, with an output of 3 to 10 MW, giving it a core life of between 10 and 30 years.
For on-grid applications, the Sealer 55 would need 21 tonnes of 12% enriched uranium nitride fuel for a rated power output of 55 MW. Full power core life is expected to be 25 years.
The company has estimated the cost of a single mass produced Sealer 55 at about €200m including fuel costs.
