US company, founded by Bill Gates, committed to delivering units across globe
US nuclear reactor company TerraPower has announced the official submission of the Natrium reactor and energy storage system into the UK’s generic design assessment (GDA) process.
TerraPower, which was founded by Bill Gates and other backers, said in a statement this is the company’s first regulatory step to deploying the Natrium technology in an international market.
TerraPower president and chief executive officer Chris Levesque said the submission marks a substantial step towards bringing the “revolutionary” Natrium reactor and energy storage system to the UK.
“TerraPower is committed to delivering Natrium units across the globe, and our industry-leading regulatory team is setting the standard on how to licence and deploy advanced nuclear technologies,” Levesque said. “We look forward to working with the UK government as we work through the review process.”
TerraPower has been working through the regulatory requirements in the US, where the first Natrium plant is being constructed at a former coal site in Kemmerer, Wyoming. This includes the recent finalisation of the environmental impact statement for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The UK’s voluntary GDA process will build on the company’s experience and efforts and allow TerraPower to establish deployment timelines for Natrium sites in the country.
The process is used by nuclear regulators to assess the new nuclear power station designs. It allows the regulators to assess the safety, security and environmental implications of new reactor designs, separately from applications to build them at specific sites.
Natrium’s Innovative Technology
The Natrium technology features a 345 MW sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt-based energy storage system. The storage technology can boost the system’s output to 500 MW for more than five and a half hours when needed.
TerraPower says this innovative addition allows a Natrium plant to integrate seamlessly with renewable resources and leads to faster, more cost-effective decarbonisation of the electric grid while producing dispatchable carbon-free energy.
TerraPower and US technology and engineering company KBR announced earlier this autumn their efforts to identify sites for the Natrium reactor in the UK.
“As the UK strategises how to best meet growing energy demand, innovative solutions like TerraPower’s Natrium technology with clean, baseload power plus gigawatt-scale energy storage will be needed to achieve both a decarbonised and a reliable electric grid,” the company said.
