Wilmington, Delaware (Wednesday, June 28, 2023) – Moltex Energy USA LLC, a subsidiary of Moltex Energy Canada Inc., is pleased to be a recipient of a Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) Nuclear Energy Voucher, which provides advanced nuclear technology developers with capacity and expertise at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories.
“This voucher will allow us to conduct valuable heat-transfer testing for the development of our reactor, which relies on natural convection,” said Rory O’Sullivan, CEO, Moltex. “Access to the DOE’s facilities and knowledge will be beneficial as we undertake these activities.”
Moltex’s tests will focus on better understanding how heat is transferred from molten salt fuel in pins to the molten salt coolant. Working in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory and building on findings from previous tests, results will support benchmarking and validation of thermal-hydraulics models that will inform reactor design.
GAIN was established to provide technical, regulatory, and financial assistance to move innovative nuclear energy technologies toward commercialization. Through GAIN, state-of-the-art infrastructure is provided to achieve faster and more cost-effective development of advanced nuclear energy technologies. Moltex is one of seven organizations receiving a voucher this round, the third of the 2023 fiscal year.
The energy voucher is not the first time the DOE has supported Moltex. In 2020, Moltex received $4.5M in funding through the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), an agency within the DOE, to advance the development of its reactor. In 2019, ARPA-E awarded Moltex $2.55M to develop technologies to shorten reactor construction time.
Media contact:
Aleisha Bosch
Communications Officer
aleishabosch@moltexenergy.com
About Moltex:
Moltex is a nuclear technology leader that has caught the attention of governments, utilities and investors worldwide. It is developing three unique technologies: a Stable Salt Reactor – Wasteburner (SSR-W) that uses recycled nuclear waste as fuel; a WAste To Stable Salt (WATSS) process for recycling nuclear waste to produce SSR-W fuel; and GridReserve thermal energy storage tanks, enabling the SSR-W to act as a peaking plant. Moltex was selected by NB Power to progress development of its reactor technology in New Brunswick, Canada, with the goal of deploying first-of-a-kind SSR-W, WATSS and GridReserve units at the Point Lepreau site.
