In the News

Meanwhile, the DOE also announced technical voucher awards to U.S. companies selected under the DOE’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative. Included among the companies selected to receive GAIN technology development vouchers is Terrestrial Energy USA ($500,000). Terrestrial Energy USA in a May 2 news release said that it received an award for advanced nuclear instrumentation development work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a U.S.

Terrestrial Energy says its Integrated Molten Salt Reactor can produce heat at around 600 degrees celsius and could supply energy intensive processes such as hydrogen production, desalination and petrochemical refining...[It] is one of several advanced reactor developers leading the charge and hopes to build its first plant in North America in the 2020s.

Terrestrial Energy offered details about a less-conventional advanced nuclear design...touting Terrestrial’s 400-MWth (192-MWe) liquid-fueled SMR. Called the IMSR (Integral Molten Salt Reactor), it incorporates many aspects of molten salt reactor operation researched, demonstrated, and proven in test reactors at ORNL in the 1960s.

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected 13 projects to receive approximately $60 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development for advanced nuclear technologies.

“We initially met with Terrestrial Energy back in 2015. Right now, we’re focused on advising Terrestrial as they assess a site for commercial operation,” said Mike Paoli, a spokesman for Energy Northwest.

Professor Joseph Lassiter writes: "I have high hopes for the promising technology category known as 'new nuclear,' which offers the potential to dramatically reduce costs and rapidly ramp up installations when compared to today’s nuclear power plants.

The US Senate has passed a bill that could accelerate the development of advanced nuclear reactors, providing a boost to technologies that promise to make nuclear power cheaper, safer, and easier to build...Startups, like Terrestrial Energy, are developing molten-salt reactors that should be safer and produce less waste.

Terrestrial says its 190,000-kilowatt reactor requires an upfront investment of less than $1 billion, resulting in kilowatt-per-hour costs of less than 5 cents, a price competitive with power from natural gas.

I’ll be sitting down with Michael Shellenberger, founder of Environmental Progress, and Simon Irish, chief executive of Terrestrial Energy, to talk about the role of nuclear energy.