Moltex Energy is one of eight organisations included in the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) programme. Having received a grant of £300,000 in 2018, Moltex Energy is now bidding for a share of the £40m that is available in 2019. The AMR programme is intended to support promising nuclear technologies.
Advanced Modular Reactors are often thought of as being small, and indeed several companies in the programme have reactors aimed at the portable market, generating 10-40MW. Moltex Energy has a grid-scale generating and energy storage capacity, with variable power outputs from 300MW up to 3000MW. The variable nature of the output is key too, as current nuclear generation produces a constant power output to the grid, known as baseload. The grid needs a variable power source too, to match generation to demand, and this role is currently filled by gas power stations – a fossil fuel. Moltex Energy’s designs include true grid-scale energy storage, so that power generated can be stored until it is needed. This makes a carbon-free energy grid a real prospect.
Having just completed its submission to BEIS, Moltex Energy is looking forward to the awarding of funding and the continuation of SSR development in the UK.
