Tests underway on keenly watched nuclear reactor

Tests are underway in the US in what backers argue could be shipping’s long-term answer to its decarbonisation riddle. 

Southern Company, TerraPower and CORE POWER have started pumped-salt operations in an integrated effects test (IET) of TerraPower’s first-of-a-kind nuclear molten chloride fast reactor (MCFR).

Since installation of the IET at TerraPower’s laboratory in Everett, Washington, the project team has completed mechanical, electrical and controls verification and commissioned all systems. Commissioning employed hot argon and chloride salts to confirm readiness, including filling and flushing of drain tanks and verifying operation of freeze valves. Chloride salt has now been loaded into the primary coolant salt loops and pumped-salt operations have begun.

“The integrated effects test allows us to collect that crucial last-mile data for a design and build of the molten chloride fast reactor and takes the team one step closer to a genuinely unique way to do new nuclear that is appropriate for the commercial marine environment,” commented Mikal Bøe, president and CEO of CORE POWER, the British company that has engaged with the maritime community to deliver nuclear propulsion solutions in the future.

The IET will inform the design, licensing and operation of an approximately 180-megawatt MCFR demonstration planned for the early 2030s time frame.

“New nuclear for maritime is now firmly on the agenda for the ocean transport industry as the only solution that can take us to actual zero. It’s the end game of our energy transition and with solid progress being made in building a new nuclear technology that actually works for shipping, we see the momentum continuing to build,” Bøe told Splash.

Class society ABS held its first ever global forum on new nuclear for maritime in Washington DC last Thursday with 150 industry and government executives from the US, Korea and Europe in attendance. 

Floating nuclear power plant projects are underway in the US, China, Denmark, Russia, Italy and South Korea. 

A recent survey carried by the International Chamber of Shipping showed 9% of its C-suite members expect nuclear ships within a decade.