Nuclear power |
The FLEX reactor uses a patented eutectic mixture of aluminium fluoride and sodium fluoride as primary coolant. Similar salt mixtures have seen decades of use in the aluminium smelting industry, giving high confidence in their lack of interaction with the graphite moderator. The fuel salt chemistry is redox stabilised by a combination of uranium oxidation states, acting as a redox buffer in a eutectic mixture with sodium fluoride diluent. The buffer enables maintenance of redox potential, and neutralisation of potentially corrosive fission products generated throughout the reactor’s life. Alloy sample tubes containing fluoride salts have been heated to the FLEX reactor operating temperature of up to 900°C and maintained at that level for many months in the MoltexFLEX laboratory, at the end of which they exhibit little
evidence of corrosion – even at the micron level when examined under a scanning electron microscope.
Looking ahead
MoltexFLEX is scaling up to build on the amazing progress the company has made over the past year, which will see multi-fold increases in the size of its team to several hundred internal and external staff over the next two years, and is currently having fruitful discussions with private investors to fund the next stage of development. While the company believes it can bring the first-of-a-kind FLEX reactor to fruition via private finance alone over the next six to seven years, it is eagerly awaiting the establishment of Great British Nuclear and the opportunity to work with them to establish advanced nuclear technologies
such as FLEX in the energy mix. In the meantime, the company is increasingly gaining recognition for its ground-breaking technology – for example, in April it was named as a Champion as part of the Green Builders Of Tomorrow initiative, run by the UK Department for Business and Trade. This sees MoltexFLEX joining five other companies in travelling to the UAE to meet potential investors.
To conclude, MoltexFLEX believes that its SSR technology, and the FLEX reactor in particular, have a huge contribution to make – not just towards achieving Net Zero by 2050, but also in bringing abundant, clean and low-cost energy to the developing world and restoring Britain’s lead as a nuclear innovator. It’s this vision that drives the MoltexFLEX team every day towards making the FLEX reactor a reality.
SMRs: one step backwards, several steps forward
The first quarter of 2023 has seen mixed fortunes for advanced/small modular reactors. James Varley reports
A notable setback was Urenco’s announcement that it had “refocused its priorities” and could no longer support development of the U-Battery micro-reactor, having “exhausted…attempts to secure the commitment of new commercial investors.” Urenco’s plan is to “preserve the public investment in U-Battery by transferring its intellectual property to the National Nuclear Laboratory.”
The U-Battery is a 4 MWe/10 MWt HTGR (high temperature gas-cooled reactor) building on a conceptual design developed in 2009 by the Universities of Manchester (UK) and Delft (the Netherlands).
“We continue to believe in the U-Battery design,” said Urenco CTO Chris Chater,
noting that it “could provide an innovative decarbonisation solution for hard to abate sectors…As such, we plan to support AMR and SMR designs like U-Battery in the future through fuel development, which we are investing in as part of our business strategy.”
Another step forward for Rolls-Royce SMR
Better UK news comes from Rolls-Royce SMR. Its SMR, supported by 210 million GBP grant funding from UKRI (UK Research and Innovation), has progressed to Step 2 of the Generic Design Assessment (GDA), following successful completion of the first step of the assessment by the UK’s nuclear regulators.
“Reaching this significant milestone puts the Rolls-Royce SMR significantly ahead of other designs in securing consent for a small modular reactor to operate in the UK”, the company says. The Rolls-Royce SMR, at 470 MWe – perhaps at the limits of what might be considered small – is a compact, 90% factory built, 3-loop PWR, building on the company’s extensive experience of providing technology for nuclear submarines. Step 2 is the fundamental assessment stage of the GDA where the detailed technical assessment by the UK regulators – the Office for Nuclear Regulation, Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales – is said to begin in earnest.
The aim of the UKRI funding is to accelerate the Rolls-Royce SMR design process and pass GDA stage 2.
Rolls-Royce SMR says it welcomes comments and questions about the Rolls-Royce SMR design. This feedback will be incorporated into the GDA process and may be published anonymously on the Rolls-Royce SMR GDA website and used during dialogue with our regulators. Step 1 of the Rolls-Royce SMR GDA began in April 2022. Step 2 started a year later and is expected to last for 16 months.
The aim of the GDA is to allow UK regulators to begin assessing the safety, security, safeguards and environmental aspects of new reactor designs before site-specific proposals are brought forward.
Above: Visualisation of the Rolls-Royce SMR (source: RR-SMR) 26 | April 2023|
www.modernpowersystems.com
The GDA process focuses on the design of a generic nuclear power station and is not site-specific. The end of Step 3 culminates in the award of a Design Acceptance Confirmation
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