SMRs | THERMAL POWER
The next step in molten salt reactor evolution
Moltex Energy, the UK-based developer of molten salt nuclear technology, launched its subsidiary MoltexFLEX last autumn to work on its FLEX reactor – the latest application of the company’s platform stable salt reactor (SSR) design
THE FLEX REACTOR IS THE thermal spectrum version of Moltex Energy Limited’s globally patented SSR technology – it uses graphite as the moderator. That technology is shared with MoltexFLEX’s sister company, Moltex Energy Canada, which is developing the fast spectrum version (the SSR-W) and the WAste To Stable Salt (WATSS) process that will produce the fuel for the reactor from recycled spent fuel. SSRs are fundamentally unique in comparison with
all other molten salt reactors in that they restrict the radioactive fuel salt to tubes similar to the fuel assemblies in conventional reactors. A separate, non-radioactive molten salt then transfers heat from the reactor core to heat exchangers. In other molten salt reactors, where the fuel is also the
MoltexFLEX CEO David Landon
coolant, the complex fuel salt circulation system – with pumps, filters, conditioning units and heat exchangers – is exposed to the radioactive fuel salt. This puts severe demands on those components and makes maintenance challenging, and these engineering challenges arguably represent the key reasons that these reactors are not currently used commercially.
A simple solution The FLEX reactor is an evolution of the company’s earlier thermal spectrum design, the SSR-U. MoltexFLEX was launched in September 2022 in the UK to promote the FLEX design worldwide and develop SSR technology. The FLEX reactor is designed with simplicity in mind.
It is small and modular, allowing most components to be factory-produced, enabling transportability, reducing on-site work and speeding up construction, all of which minimise the overall costs. It is a low-pressure design that uses natural convection for all heat transfer – this removes the need for pumps or any other moving parts, and for expensive high pressure containment structures. Wherever possible, the FLEX reactor will use materials and technology already proven within the nuclear industry, making safety and design substantiation quicker and easier by eliminating the need for extensive research programmes. MoltexFLEX’s key objective is to bring the FLEX reactor
to market quickly, rapidly deploying fleets worldwide. This is one of the reasons for the selection of low-enriched
Above: This artist’s impression shows a typical grid-scale array of FLEX reactors – the 32 buildings on the right. On the left, the blue GridReseve storage tanks can be seen next to the turbine island All images: ©MoltexFLEX
36 | May 2023 |
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