Moltex Energy is pleased to announce we have been selected by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) to proceed into final negotiations in the Canadian Nuclear Research Initiative (CNRI). CNRI is a program to support collaborative small modular reactors (SMR) research projects with third-party proponents in Canada.
Rory O’Sullivan, CEO for North America at Moltex Energy, said, “This is positive news and will support the advancement of our project in Canada. Nuclear power is essential to address our global energy issues as intermittent renewables alone cannot meet the current and future demand. Many countries around the world have stores of used nuclear fuel from their current nuclear plants and we have discovered a clean, safe and economical way to recycle this waste into a fuel to produce power in the Moltex Stable Salt Reactor and significantly reduce the amount of long lived radio-nuclides.”
The program will support the second and third phases of the Oxide Nuclear WAste Reduction Demonstration (ONWARD) project to explore the commercial viability of the WAste To Stable Salts (WATSS) technology to convert spent CANDU fuel into new fuel that can produce more clean energy from a Stable Salt Reactor. The first phase is already in progress.
Under the proposed CNRI project, Moltex Energy, the University of New Brunswick and CNL will design, build and optimize the test apparatus used to process the used fuel. The data collected will support the design and licensing of a WATSS facility. As managers of spent fuel in Canada, New Brunswick Power and Ontario Power Generation will be involvedin the project to provide advice and guidance.
There are more than 2.8 million used nuclear fuel bundles in Canada with 90,000 added each year. The successful commercialization of the WATSS process will allow Canada to convert this waste to a new fuel source to create low carbon clean energy, while reducing the existing liability.
