Company signs letter of intent with reactor developer BWXT
Tata Chemicals North America’s soda ash subsidiary signed a letter of intent with BWXT Advanced Technologies to explore the deployment of up to eight microreactor units at its Green River mining site, the company said.
Under the agreement, Tata Chemicals Soda Ash Partners and BWXT will work to establish commercial terms and develop a timeline aimed at installing BWXT’s Advanced Nuclear Reactors (BANRs) at the site, in Wyoming, in the early 2030s.
Tata Chemicals said the two companies have been studying the feasibility of integrating nuclear energy into Tata’s operations since September 2023.
The new agreement will help define “techno-economic parameters” and set conditions that could lead to a formal power purchase agreement, said Tata Chemicals.
The microreactors are intended to provide on-demand, carbon-free electricity and industrial process heat to support one of the world’s largest soda ash producers.
Tata Chemicals said it sees nuclear power as “an important energy source” in improving its supply chain security and sustainability, and in delivering products with a reduced carbon footprint.
The Green River facility, operating since 1968, mines and refines trona ore into soda ash, the company said. The facility sits atop one of the world’s largest trona reserves and runs without interruption all year round.
Soda ash, or sodium carbonate, is primarily used in the manufacturing of glass, as well as in producing detergents, chemicals, and various industrial goods. Producing soda ash is a very heat-intensive process.
BWXT’s BANR is a transportable high-temperature gas-cooled microreactor which will use novel Triso (tristructural-isotropic) fuel. Its designed thermal output is 50 MWt, with reactor outlet temperatures reaching 800°C.
The microreactor design is part of the US government’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Programme, aimed at accelerating the development and deployment of advanced nuclear reactor technologies.
