Terrestrial Energy, a US developer of small modular nuclear power plants using its Generation IV Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) technology, has signed an agreement with the US Department of Energy (DOE) for Project Tefla, a pilot production facility that will demonstrate IMSR fuel salt production.

Project Tefla will support Charlotte, North Carolina-based Terrestrial Energy’s commercial IMSR plant development and future deployments by demonstrating the company’s proprietary IMSR fuel salt production technology.

Tefla will produce IMSR fuel at pilot plant scale, synthesising the fuel to precise reactor requirements using readily available standard-assay low-enriched uranium (Saleu) enriched to less than 5% U235 as feedstock.