London, 22 June 2018 – Moltex Energy, a leading advanced nuclear reactor technology company and proprietor of the Stable Salt Reactor (SSR) design, has been awarded a £300k contract by the UK Government as part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) scheme.
The funding will be used to develop a feasibility study for deploying the SSR in the UK, including a technical review, business case, and safety and environmental considerations.
The scheme will explore options to ensure the UK has a secure, long-term energy supply that is reliable,affordable and clean, as well as providing opportunities for the UK economy and ensuring that the UK remains at the forefront of the science, research and innovation in AMR technologies. The 2nd phase of the scheme, which will provide a share of up to £40m, is expected to be announced in early 2019 and will fund applied research and development work for a UK reactor.
The Moltex SSR technology meets and exceeds the government’s ambitions for advanced nuclear energy.
Reliable – the SSR technology is able to store grid scale energy so that the power plant can output peak power to the grid for several hours at 3x the reactor power at times of peak demand, effectively compensating for the intermittency of wind and solar power.
Affordable – the projected cost of electricity of the SSR is under £35/MWhr when operating as baseload and £40/MWhr when operating as a peak demand plant – less than half the cost of competing Pressurised Water Reactors (which cannot economically operate as peak demand plants). Operating as a peak demand plant, the capital cost per kW of the SSR is similar to a modern gas powered plant but with far lower operating costs.
Clean – the SSR-Wasteburner version of the reactor is fuelled by the long lived radioactive waste from existing spent nuclear fuel, leaving a residual radioactive waste that is hazardous for only 300 years instead of 300,000 years. The SSR-Uranium/Thorium version is fuelled by enriched uranium, in which technology the UK is a world leader, and itself produces spent fuel which can used to fuel the SSR-Wasteburner leaving a similarly short lived radioactive waste output.
At the forefront – Being at the forefront of science often means being decades from commercial reality. The SSR is based on a simple globally patented breakthrough in reactor technology requiring only modest R&D. Moltex has already commenced pre-license review in Canada with a projected power on date in under 10 years. With its exceptional economics the SSR has clear potential to displace fossils fuels for electricity production globally. This could put the UK in a globally dominant position in clean energy generation.
Stephen Haighton, Chief Executive of Moltex Energy, said: “We are delighted to have received this contract from BEIS to participate in an ‘apples to apples’ comparison of the SSR technology with other advanced nuclear technologies. We are confident the SSR will emerge as by far the most promising technology option for deployment in the late 2020’s. We firmly believe that the SSR is the way in which the UK can move away from fossil fuel power generation while lowering consumer bills. The world now needs a combination of intermittent wind and solar energy partnered with clean, very cheap and dispatchable nuclear energy – such as Moltex technology can deliver.”
For more information contact Ian Scott, President Moltex Energy Ltd 07868 754352 ianscott@moltexenergy.com
