Dive Brief:
- TerraPower has begun construction on its 345-MW Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor demonstration project near Kemmerer, Wyoming, marking the first advanced non-light water nuclear reactor project to move from design into construction, the company said Monday.
- Initial construction activities will be limited to non-nuclear site features, with nuclear construction to begin after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves TerraPower’s March 28 nuclear construction permit application for the Natrium design, the company said. The facility, which will supply power to PacifiCorp’s electric grid, could begin operations by 2030, TerraPower said in 2022.
- “Innovative technologies like the Natrium project will enhance our ability to serve our customers, meet growing demand and ensure a reliable and resilient energy future,” PacifiCorp CEO Cindy Crane said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
The new reactor will be constructed near the site of the 687-MW Naughton power plant, which PacifiCorp plans to convert from coal to natural gas in 2026. It’s the world’s only coal-to-nuclear project under development, TerraPower said.
The Wyoming demonstration project “is intended to validate the design, construction and operational features of the Natrium technology” while operating as “a fully functioning commercial power plant,” TerraPower said. TerraPower developed the reactor in partnership with GE Hitachi.
The Natrium design is one of two awardees in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. X-energy’s Xe-100 reactor design is the other. ARDP is set to disburse $3.2 billion over seven years, with the partner companies providing matching funds.
Alongside its 345-MW reactor, the facility will have a molten salt-based energy storage system that can achieve power output of 500 MW for more than five and a half hours. The storage system is unique among advanced nuclear reactor designs and “allows the plant to integrate seamlessly with renewable resources,” TerraPower said.
Monday’s groundbreaking kicked off work on the site’s sodium test and fill facility, which is expected to take two and a half years to complete, according to a TerraPower spokesperson. At some point during that time frame, TerraPower “would likely also begin construction on the unit's non-nuclear power island,” the spokesperson added.
Nuclear construction activities can’t begin until NRC approves TerraPower’s construction permit application following a “review process [that] will take a couple of years,” TerraPower founder and chairman Bill Gates said Monday in a blog post. TerraPower will begin construction next year on the facility’s energy island, including steam turbines and other power generation equipment, and hopes to begin construction in 2026 on the nuclear island containing the reactor and related systems.
Full construction is expected to take five years, TerraPower said. The company anticipates submitting its operating license application to the NRC in 2027, the spokesperson said.
TerraPower’s 2022 statement on the reactor’s opening schedule anticipated “a minimum of a two-year delay” from its planned 2028 commissioning due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted global supplies of the Natrium design’s high-assay, low-enriched uranium fuel. At the time, Russia was the world’s only commercial supplier, though Congress has since taken steps to boost domestic supplies of the fuel.
Separately from the Natrium design, TerraPower is developing a molten chloride fast reactor through a public-private partnership led by Southern Co. The companies began non-nuclear testing on the MCFR design in October and could begin operational testing through Idaho National Laboratory’s Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment as soon as 2027.
