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Moltex Energy is a nuclear technology development company based in the United Kingdom.
History
[edit]Moltex Energy was established in 2013 by founders Dr Ian Scott and John Durham, with the headquarters based in London.[1]
John Durham, an environmental philanthropist, had been focused on innovative ways of influencing UK policy to tackle climate change[2]. John Durham co-founded the Alvin Weinberg foundation in September 2011 with Baroness Bryony Worthington, a British environmental campaigner and life peer in the House of Lords[3][4]. The not-for-profit foundation is named after Alvin Weinberg who pioneered a Liquid-Fuel Thorium Reactor (LFTR) during the 1950s and 1960s at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US. The Alvin Weinberg foundation acted as a springboard to accelerate thorium and molten salt development by giving the founders of Moltex Energy a platform to engage in.
Dr Ian Scott, the former Chief Scientist for Unilever, is the inventor and developer of many of the Moltex Energy technologies.[5][6][7]. After studying nuclear physics at the University of Cambridge, he was swayed by the rapidly emerging field of biological sciences and went on to make a career in it. He became Chief Scientist for Unilever before leaving to start a drug discovery company. In 2012 he turned again to nuclear as it had gone from being "too cheap to meter" to too expensive to afford. Ian Scott and John Durham, with the common goal in developing molten salt reactor technology, formed Moltex Energy LLP in 2013[8]
In July 2015, independent consultancy Energy Process Developments (EPD) released its assessment of six Molten Salt Reactors (MSR), which found the Moltex Stable Salt Reactor (SSR) to be the most promising MSR technology for the UK.[9][10][11] Activities are ongoing for Moltex technologies to be developed at the Point Lepreau site in Canada under an agreement signed with the New Brunswick Energy Solutions Corporation and NB Power.[12]
Moltex Energy was incorporated to become Moltex Energy Ltd in November 2016.[1]
In March 2016, the UK government announced a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) competition, for which Moltex Energy was one of the participants. The competition closed in December 2017 with no winner announced[13]. Subsequently, the UK government opened the small business research initiative for nuclear Advanced Modular Reactors (AMR), feasibility and development; where organisations applied for a share of up to £4 million to develop feasibility projects for nuclear AMRs. Moltex Energy is classed as an AMR company, which doesn't use pressurised or boiling water for the primary coolant. [14]
Moltex was selected to develop a feasibility study by the government in June 2018 and aqcuired funding to this[15]
Moltex Energy signed an agreement with the New Brunswick Energy Solutions Corporation and NB Power to develop the company technology in July 2018[12]. The agreement provides CAD 5 million of financial support to Moltex for its immediate development activities and it's North American headquarters in Saint John. Moltex becomes the second partner in a nuclear research cluster that will work on research and development of small modular reactor technology in the Canadian province[16].
Technology
[edit]Stable Salt Reactor (SSR)
[edit]The SSR is a Gen IV nuclear reactor design, using molten salts in its coolant and fuel.[17] It is the only MSR that uses conventional fuel assemblies as opposed to a pumped molten salt fuel, like many other molten salt reactor (MSR) designs.[18][19] Moltex Energy have patented the use of static fueled salts, based on the 1950s Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE) which was researched by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the United States.
Computational techniques during the 1950s were in their infancy. It was determined that a statically fueled MSR would not be viable and therefore funding was scrapped due to the non-applicability in aircraft and the rise of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). Research was continued on the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment throughout the 1960s. Recent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have shown that the properties of molten salts in a fuel tube are in-fact desirable, and present many benefits compared to a pumped molten salt fluid, therefore the Moltex Energy SSR is based upon this concept[20][21]
Projects
[edit]Moltex Energy has been awarded Innovate UK funding to work in collaboration with Altran and University of Bristol. The feasibility study titled ICON, or intelligent control for efficient nuclear applications, assessed the use of wireless and advanced instrumentation and control within nuclear environments.[22]
Moltex Energy is undergoing the pre-licensing vendor design review with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). This is a process to show that there are no "major hurdles" to overcome in the licensing process with goal to produce a first of a kind reactor at the New Brunswick Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station.[23][24][25]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Moltex Energy". Companies House, UK Government: Company number: 10501719. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ "Moltex Energy History". Science for Sustainability. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ Murray, James (September 2011). "NGO Fuel Safe Thorium Nuclear Reactors". Business Green. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Can the Molten Salt Reactor Breakthrough". Real Clear Energy. September 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Britain should leap frog Hinkley and lead 21st century Nuclear". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ Shankleman, Jess. "How new nuclear could lift renewables at a third of hinkley cost". Bloomberg. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Nuclear Innovators set out to change the energy sectors future". Nuclear institute. September 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:2was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Griffiths, Trevor; Tomlinson, Jasper (July 2015). "Energy Process Developments Feasibility Study" (PDF). Energy Process Developments. Frazer Nash, David Glazbrook, Dr Andrei Horvat. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Moltex Energy's Molten Salt Reactor considered for first UK pilot". IMechE. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Molten Salt Reactor Feasibility Study by EPD". Thorium Energy World. August 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ a b "Moltex Molten Salt Reactor being built in New Brunswick Canada". Next Big Future. 19 July 2018.
- ^ "Small Modular Reactor Competition Phase One". UK Government. December 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Innovation Competition for Advanced Modular Reactors". UK Government Innovation Funding. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Nuclear Industry Sector Deal". 28 June 2018.
- ^ "Moltex Partners in New Brunswick SMR Project". World Nuclear News.
- ^ "Past and Planned Molten Salt work in the UK" (PDF). International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ Dolan, Thomas J. (June 2017). "Molten Salt Reactors and Thorium Energy". Woodhead Publishing Series in Energy, Elsevier. Chapter 14. Static liquid fuel reactors: 841.
- ^ "Molten Salt Reactors". World Nuclear Association. August 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Design optimisation revolutionary stable salt reactor". Wilde Engineering Analysis. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "A reactor worth its salt". Power Engineering. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ "Wireless Nuclear Control Systems". Bristol University, Altran & Moltex Energy. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ "Pre-licensing Vendor Design Review". Canadian Nuclear Safety Comission (CNSC). Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Moltex Energy sees UK-Canada SMR licensing as springboard to Asia". Nuclear Energy Insider. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Moltex Energy appoints Deloitte to support their canadian deployment programme". Organisation of Canadian Nuclear Industries (OCNI). Retrieved 15 May 2018.