Nuclear power innovation |
of writing, but are all expected to mature to commercial reactor deployment by 2030. The limitation on the lifetime of the reactor is a combination of corrosion, salt compatibility, temperatures, stress/strain and radiation. It is currently the belief that the reactor core will be the limiting factor and that a life of 5 years can be achieved after a few iterations. A large percentage of the remaining work revolves around testing and approval of the materials used in critical components, such as reactor core, pump, pipes, heat exchangers and dump tanks. A Copenhagen Atomics power plant is planned to last for 50+ years and many components are replaced every 5 years including the reactor vessel. As the technology matures these components may last longer than 5 years. An LWR replaces 300+ tonnes of materials per 5 years, Copenhagen Atomics power plants will replace less than that.
A new era
The Copenhagen Atomics reactor concept ushers in a new era of fertile fuelled reactors, promising orders of magnitude lower fuel cost and smaller fuel volume, smaller reactor core size and, overall, radically less expensive reactors.
reactor. All core materials, blanket, fuel salt, structural materials and heavy water are part of this burnup simulation. Lanthanides fission products are not removed for the first ten years
Figure 4. 25 year burnup simulation for the Copenhagen Atomics 100 MWt Onion Core®
These reactors create less waste, can easily be mass manufactured on assembly lines and transported on regular lorries and can even use transuranics from spent LWR fuel as kick starter fuel. It is likely that electricity prices of around $20/MWh can be reached from 2035.
38 | April 2025|
www.modernpowersystems.com
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