The UK government is exploring the potential for small modular nuclear reactors to complement current plans for large conventional reactors. Moltex Energy was invited to provide input to the second stage of this process, the Small Modular Reactor Techno-Economic Assessment which completed in March 2016. The Chancellor announced in the Spring budget that the third stage, a competition to identify the best option or options in this field for the UK was now open and Moltex Energy is registering for this competition.
We hope that this will provide the basis for Stable Salt Reactors to become a key part of the UK nuclear industry, in particular providing a way to economically utilise the UK’s large purified plutonium stockpile and to close the fuel cycle for conventional reactors by burning the plutonium and higer actinides from spent uranium oxide fuel leaving a residue not requiring storage in a geological repository.