Framatome and TerraPower will workforce to design and develop a pilot line for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) metallization, an important deconversion course of, at Framatome’s nuclear gasoline manufacturing facility in Richland, Washington.
The pilot line, which can convert uranium oxide into HALEU steel, will provoke a “long-term collaboration to produce steel feedstock and assist TerraPower construct a home HALEU provide chain,” the businesses stated in a joint assertion on Might 29.
Deconversion is a vital step within the HALEU gasoline cycle. After enrichment, HALEU uranium hexafluoride (UF6, 19.75% enriched, akin to Centrus Power is producing) should be “deconverted” to a uranium kind (to incorporate oxides, steel and alloys, and nitrides and carbides) appropriate for gasoline fabrication. (POWER explains the method intimately in a sidebar right here.) Whereas the step is historically accomplished in gasoline fabrication amenities, deconversion of HALEU enriched to 10% or increased should be carried out in a bodily safety Class II facility.
As Framatome defined on Wednesday, the metallization of HALEU “is a vital a part of the deconversion course of that permits uranium to remodel right into a steel that’s then used to manufacture gasoline for superior reactors.” It stated the brand new HALEU pilot line, which is already at present underneath building, “will show the viability of Framatome’s know-how for metallization to assist the event of the superior reactor market,” it stated.
An important attribute of the pilot will probably be to construct “the belief and confidence our prospects depend on,” stated Ala Alzaben, senior vp for North America Gasoline at Framatome. TerraPower already helps operational facilities in Washington state at its Bellevue-based headquarters and laboratory and at its Everett laboratory location, the corporate famous. “TerraPower is on the forefront of the following era of superior reactors and by using our experience and versatile manufacturing infrastructure, we will guarantee new clear nuclear initiatives will not be ready on the availability chain of nuclear fuels,” Alzaben stated.
Framatome additionally expects that the profitable completion and operation of the HALEU pilot line might bolster its initiatives to reinforce the U.S. gasoline provide chain. The corporate stated it has utilized for Division of Power (DOE) funding in response to the company’s HALEU Availability Program (HAP) solicitation.
The DOE in March famous it closed requests for proposals (RFPs) for the acquisition of HALEU enrichment and deconversion companies. The measure is furnished by $700 million allotted by the 2022 Inflation Discount Act (IRA) to assist actions underneath the HALEU Availability Program (which Congress established within the Power Act of 2020). The DOE in April stated it plans to award contracts “later this summer season.” The trouble might spur demand for extra HALEU manufacturing and personal funding in our home nuclear gasoline provide infrastructure, the company has urged.
Urgency for Satisfactory Gasoline
Whereas TerraPower has been supportive of a robust home gasoline provide chain, it’s fielding urgency as improvement continues at Kemmerer Unit 1, a Natrium reactor energy plant, which it’s constructing underneath the DOE’s Superior Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). The mission is taking form in Lincoln County, Wyoming, about 3 miles from PacifiCorp’s three-unit 604-MW coal and gasoline–fired Naughton Energy Plant. When accomplished, the demonstration mission will each showcase the pioneering know-how and supply energy era capability within the PacifiCorp service space.
Progress on plant improvement has been ongoing, and the corporate has to date introduced two rounds of provider choices. TerraPower, notably, submitted its building allow software (CPA) to the Nuclear Regulatory Fee (NRC) in late March, and the NRC accepted the CPA on Might 21. The NRC is now engaged on establishing a evaluate schedule for the CPA.
Whereas the ARDP initially required the demonstration mission to start operations in 2028, TerraPower is now eyeing a 2030 begin date, citing a scarcity of HALEU availability. In July 2023, the firm introduced a memorandum of understanding with Centrus Power to “considerably develop their collaboration” to make sure the demonstration reactor could have entry to HALEU to satisfy the 2030 schedule.
Natrium is an 840 MWth pool-type sodium quick reactor (SFR) that “comprises a compact and easy security envelope and a molten salt power storage system, which allows the plant to differ its provide of power to the grid as much as 500 MWe web [for 5.5+ hours], whereas sustaining fixed reactor energy,” TerraPower says. “The reactor operates close to atmospheric strain, circulating sodium by means of its core with pumps. Warmth is transferred from the first loop inside the Main Warmth Transport System (PHT) to an intermediate sodium piping loop inside the Intermediate Warmth Transport System (IHT) by way of intermediate warmth exchangers situated within the reactor pool,” it explains.
Kemmerer 1 will comprise a nuclear island, which comprises the reactor and its supporting methods, and an power island, which can include the thermal power storage tanks, steam generator, feedwater system, condenser, turbine, and supporting methods. The islands are designed to perform independently.
The plant’s IHT will transport reactor warmth from its intermediate warmth exchanger to its nuclear island salt system (by way of sodium-salt warmth exchangers), which can then transport the warmth to the power island’s scorching salt storage tank for thermal power storage. The warmth saved within the scorching salt tank can then be used to generate steam to be used in business steam turbines. “The design contains dependable inherent and passive security options, together with near-atmospheric working pressures, always-on passive air cooling, and inherent reactivity suggestions,” TerraPower notes.
As Mark Werner, TerraPower vp of plant supply, instructed the NRC on Might 15, in comparison with a conventional sodium quick reactor (which generates steam by means of a sodium-to-water steam generator), Natrium removes the sodium water response fully. “We do have an air cooling system that removes warmth straight from the surface of the reactor, and this permits us, successfully, indefinite passive emergency decay warmth removing within the case of a extreme irregular occasion. Since our reactor is a pool-style sodium reactor, we don’t function at a excessive coolant strain, we’re a really low coolant strain, close to atmospheric strain,” he stated.
A Essential Market Sign for the Gasoline Manufacturing Sector
Natrium’s gasoline design will use a metallic uranium gasoline alloyed with 10 weight % zirconium and cladding comprising ferritic-martensitic metal (HT9). In October 2022, TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Power introduced they might develop a gasoline fabrication facility at International Nuclear Gasoline–Americas’ (GNF-A’s) nuclear gasoline fabrication plant in Wilmington, North Carolina, that may produce dependable gasoline for Natrium crops.
The Natrium gasoline facility will probably be collectively funded by TerraPower and the DOE by means of the ARDP. It represents an funding of greater than $200 million into superior gasoline fabrication, GNF LWR Gasoline Product Director Wealthy Augi instructed the NRC in December 2023.
TerraPower notes that whereas it isn’t a uranium firm, it acknowledges a necessity for a “sturdy home HALEU provide chain.” That provide chain contains “uranium mining, enrichment of uranium into the high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU), the deconversion of that HALEU right into a steel, and the fabrication of the HALEU into gasoline rods to energy the Natrium reactor,” it says.
“Whereas there are a number of uranium mines in America, the US doesn’t at present have commercial-scale HALEU enrichment functionality, deconversion amenities, or gasoline fabrication amenities for Natrium. Thus far, TerraPower has made a number of investments to advance home provide chain capabilities.” A number of of its commitments, nonetheless, had been made earlier than Russia invaded Ukraine, it says.
On Wednesday, TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque stated the funding into Framatome’s pilot line marks one other important step in bringing superior reactors like Natrium to market. “A powerful home gasoline provide chain is essential for the wide-scale deployment of superior nuclear power options; an power supply we all know is required to satisfy clear power targets and supply dependable, baseload power,” he stated. “Additionally it is yet one more method that TerraPower is delivering on its promise to do our half to assist the gasoline manufacturing sector.”
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
