Facility to help advance company’s Gen IV reactor tech
US-based reactor developer Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation announced it has chosen Gadsden, Alabama, for the construction of the company’s first micro modular reactor (MMR) assembly plant.
USNC said the $232m (€211m) plant is scheduled to become operational in 2027. The plant will be used for the manufacturing, assembly, testing, and inspection of modules needed to build USNC’s MMR.
The company said the proposed Gadsden plant will not use or hold radioactive material in its production processes.
The site was selected after a one-year long search among hundreds of sites in 16 US states, USNC said. The MMR factory is expected to create 250 direct jobs related to manufacturing.
USNC said the new facility will be capable of producing up to 10 complete MMR nuclear units per year.
Construction of the MMR plant in Gadsden is earmarked to begin in 2024, the company said.
USNC has said previously that its MMR is a Generation IV nuclear energy system that delivers cost-effective electricity and process heat to users anywhere. The MMR is being licensed in Canada and the US.
USNC said MMR deployments are moving forward, including projects at Chalk River which is scheduled for first power in 2026, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, targeted for first power the following year.
The MMR design is a high temperature gas-cooled micro reactor with electricity generating capacity usually between 5-10 MWe at a temperature of 650 degrees Celsius and a thermal capacity of about 15-30 MWt.
