The Nuclear Regulatory Fee (NRC) has granted Abilene Christian College (ACU) a development allow to construct its Molten Salt Analysis Reactor (MSRR) facility on the college’s campus in Texas. The approval is the regulatory physique’s first for a liquid-fueled superior reactor, the primary for a analysis reactor in a long time, and its second for any superior reactor.
The NRC’s development allow, instantly efficient as of Sept. 16, authorizes ACU to construct Natura Sources’ MSR-1 system within the Gayle and Max Dillard Science and Engineering Analysis Middle constructing on the ACU campus in Abilene. Established by oilman and vitality skilled Doug Robinson, Natura has spearheaded the licensing effort alongside ACU’s Nuclear Vitality eXperimental Testing (NEXT) Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Know-how, Texas A&M College, and The College of Texas at Austin.
ACU will now proceed working with Natura to submit an working license utility whereas Natura completes the MSR-1’s detailed design. The entities count on to submit an working license within the first half of 2025.
A Small However Doubtlessly Mighty Analysis Reactor
The MSRR, a “utilization facility” devoted to accelerating the event and deployment of molten salt reactor techniques (MSR), will mark the primary deployment of Natura’s MSR-1. The low-power reactor (of lower than 1 MWth) has a “single-region, graphite-moderated core, loop-type, thermal-spectrum reactor with a fluoride-based gasoline salt flowing via 316H chrome steel gasoline circuit parts,” ACU’s NEXT Lab says in its utility.
“A cooling loop with flowing, fluoride-based salt is used to chill the gasoline circuit and expel the warmth to the ambiance,” it explains. “The MSRR is provided with an off-gas system that may relocate fission gases from the reactor headspaces via stainless-steel circuit parts for sequestration and decay. The low-power MSRR is designed to be passively secure. It depends on intrinsic properties of molten salts and engineered security options to make sure secure and dependable operations.”
The gasoline salt, working at a most temperature of 650C, will include a combination of lithium fluoride, beryllium difluoride, and uranium tetrafluoride (LiF-BeF2-UF4 with a molar ratio of about 67:28:5). It’ll use high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) with an U-235 enrichment of 19.75% and 99.99% enriched in Li-7.
MSRR salts are extremely ionic, chemically secure compounds which are proof against radiolysis, the college has famous. Whereas chemical inertness eliminates the chance of fireplace or explosion, molten salts provide an appropriate medium for warmth switch. “The MSRR salts are secure to a number of hundred levels above temperatures obtainable within the reactor and stay at low vapor stress,” it mentioned. “The melting level of the gasoline salt is about 500C (932F), and the melting level of the coolant salt is about 460C (890F). The MSRR’s massive damaging temperature coefficient and reactivity that passively moderates warmth manufacturing additionally permit for a “vital” load-following functionality, it mentioned.
The MSSR may also be used to teach and practice a brand new era of operators, engineers, and scientists “who will probably be uniquely ready to contribute to the development and deployment of MSRs and purposes,” ACU mentioned. “The analysis will generate dynamic, time-dependent, experimental MSR information to advance the understanding of reactor kinetics, gasoline salt conduct, corrosion, and migration and conduct of fission merchandise all through the system, all of which can be utilized to validate and calibrate software program for the design, licensing, and regulation of business MSRs.”
One other Superior Reactor Licensing Milestone
The licensing milestone is notable, provided that the NRC accepted ACU’s utility (underneath 10 CFR 50.2 of the Code of Federal Rules) to construct the reactor in November 2022. Whereas ACU submitted updates in November 2023 and July 2024, the NRC issued its remaining environmental evaluation for the positioning on March 7, 2024, and the ultimate security analysis for the allow on Sept. 16.
“That is the primary analysis reactor venture we’ve authorized for development in a long time, and the employees efficiently labored with ACU to resolve a number of technical points with this novel design,” mentioned Andrea Veil, Director of the NRC’s Workplace of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “Going ahead, we’ll have inspectors on the ACU campus when development will get began.”
The NRC in December 2023 granted its first development allow for a non-water-cooled reactor in additional than 50 years to Kairos Energy for the corporate’s 35-MWth Hermes molten salt “non-power” demonstration reactor, which the agency has proposed to construct on the East Tennessee Know-how Park Heritage Middle (ETTP) web site in Oak Ridge. Development of the reactor kicked off in July 2024 and it’s anticipated to be accomplished in 2027.
The MSRR and Hermes share related attributes. “There are a variety of similarities between the MSRR and Hermes, together with a excessive working temperature, a low-pressure fluoride salt loop-type cooling system, graphite and salt moderation, a novel gasoline type, and energy degree,” ACU has famous. “Main variations embody facility development, gasoline fabrication, and energy coupling system prices.”
ACU estimates, utilizing cost-capacity scaling strategies, that the MSRR’s in a single day prices will seemingly stay underneath $100 million. NRC filings counsel an in depth price breakdown ready for the MSRR, which incorporates licensing, engineering, supplies, modifications to the Science and Engineering Analysis Middle (SERC), and R&D, may lead to a central in a single day price estimate of $65 million, with a $30 million contingency to account for uncertainties.
For now, ACU is collaborating with the Division of Vitality (DOE) to develop gasoline cycle companies, and it notes additional gasoline cycle price estimates will probably be included within the reactor’s working license utility. As POWER reported in 2022, ACU informed the DOE in a letter that the analysis reactor’s fluoride salt necessities would wish “no extra” than 500 kilograms (kg) of HALEU and not more than 2,200 kg of enriched lithium.
“A letter to ACU [sent in June 2024 by the DOE] affirming good religion negotiations was offered to the NRC,” ACU famous. “Nonetheless, the present plan and desire of ACU is to not personal the MSRR gasoline however to acquire gasoline as a mortgage from DOE. After the MSRR is decommissioned, the gasoline and salt could possibly be used on different tasks and can be returned to DOE. All ACU discussions with DOE have been to acquire the gasoline as a mortgage. There may be the likelihood that, in an effort to get hold of gasoline in a well timed method, ACU may buy gasoline from somebody aside from DOE. Nonetheless, this path is just not at the moment being pursued.”
Natura Growing Industrial 100-MWe Molten Salt Reactor System
For Natura Sources, the licensing milestone represents a serious increase for its MSR-1 system, which it’s working to develop right into a industrial 100-MWe small modular reactor system.
The corporate says it has pursued an “iterative, milestone-based method” centered on effectivity and efficiency” since 2020, when it introduced collectively its college companions to type the Natura Sources Analysis Alliance.
In July, Natura partnered with the Texas Produced Water Consortium (TxPWC) at Texas Tech College—a state-supported analysis entity—to discover the deployment of its liquid-fueled molten salt reactor (LF-MSR) expertise within the Permian Basin. The hassle seeks to develop dispatchable vitality for water therapy services in Texas.
Profitable deployment of the MSR-1 system on the MSRR “will present worthwhile operational information to assist Natura’s 100 MWe techniques and also will function a world-class analysis instrument to coach superior reactor operators and educate college students,” famous Robison, Natura founder and president.
“Natura acknowledged early on that the NRC is the gold commonplace of licensing of nuclear reactors,” he mentioned. “We made a aware determination to work with the NRC to license our expertise for deployment right here within the States fairly than taking our expertise outdoors their jurisdiction or trying to keep away from the licensing course of completely.” The NRC’s issuance of the development allow “exhibits that our expertise may be licensed and de-risks the licensure of Natura’s 100 MWe techniques,” he mentioned.
ACU, too, lauded the allow’s issuance. “We respect the thorough evaluations by the NRC employees,” mentioned Ben Beasley, NEXT Lab director of licensing, on Monday. Nonetheless, he famous the development allow is just step one of the NRC’s two-step licensing course of. “The development allow permits ACU and Natura to construct and function the MSRR with out uranium,” he mentioned. “The following step is the working license, which can authorize Natura and ACU to gasoline the reactor and display the magnificence of molten salt expertise.”
Far more work stays, nonetheless, Natura famous. “The superior reactor deployment web site that may home the reactor, the [SERC] at ACU, was accomplished in August 2023, and the issuance of the development allow permits the crew to start fabrication of the reactor,” it famous. Zachry Nuclear Engineering is anticipated to finish the detailed engineering and design of the Natura MSR-1 within the first a part of 2025, “which will probably be adopted shortly by the submission of the working license utility to the NRC,” it mentioned.
Challenge companions may also have to safe ample an gasoline provide for the MSRR. The DOE “gives gasoline for the present working fleet of college analysis reactors, and its dedication in 2019 to supply gasoline and salt for the MSRR was the impetus for Natura Sources to develop and deploy the Natura MSR-1 with ACU,” Natura famous. “The gasoline and salt wants for the MSRR are distinctive, and Natura Sources and ACU are dedicated to working with the DOE to finalize particulars associated to the supply of gasoline and salt.”
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
