Thorizon is a spin-off from the Nuclear Research and consultancy Group (NRG) which operates the High Flux research reactor in Petten and manufactures radioisotopes for medical applications.
The company said it has been working on its molten salt reactor design for several years and aims to get a pilot reactor system going by 2035. The funding raised will be used for “essential” tests and research to complete the design of a first prototype.
Thorizon said its first prototype will be fuelled by a mixture of long-lived radwaste and thorium, which is a metal abundant in nature. In the process, a large portion of the long-lived waste will be transformed into short-lived waste and CO2-free energy will be released.
Besides NRG, Thorizon will partner for their prototype project with France-based nuclear fuel cycle company Orano and Dutch nuclear operator EPZ.
Thorizon said it is investigating deploying their demonstrator molten salt reactor at the site of the EPZ’s Borssele nuclear power station in Zeeland, in the southwest of the country. A broader consortium of research institutions including the Technical University of Delft and component suppliers, and industrial service providers is involved to support this development, a statement said.
According to Thorizon, private investors in the project include venture capital fund Positron Ventures, impact investor Invest-NL, one private investor, and the company Huisman as an investor and an industrial supplier. There are also two public sector investors – provincial funds PDENH and Impuls Zeeland.
Molten salt reactors are powered by a radioactive solution that blends fissionable isotopes with a liquid salt. They can run on uranium, but are also ideally suited for thorium, an alternative nuclear fuel resource that is cleaner, safer, and more abundant than uranium.
