Charlotte, NC, January 25, 2022 – Terrestrial Energy USA, Inc. has extended its testing program at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) for measurements of fuel salt properties used in the Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR), a Generation IV nuclear power plant. This program expands to include fission product solubility measurements as part of Terrestrial Energy’s plan for confirmatory testing of IMSR fuel, components, and systems. Test results will support licensing applications for first commercial deployments of IMSR power plants.
Terrestrial Energy began its fuel salt testing at ANL in 2016 with assistance from a U.S. Department of Energy Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program award. GAIN directs support to the nuclear community commercializing innovative nuclear technologies.
“We continue to expand our relationship with ANL, which began in 2016 with the DOE’s GAIN program. This first GAIN award catalyzed what is now a full-scope commercial engagement with the lab,” said Simon Irish, CEO of Terrestrial Energy USA. “Our business strategy is to work with world-class laboratories offering expertise in specific areas, rather than building such laboratory capability in-house. This strategy, often executed with the support of government grants, keeps our engineering resources focused on the IMSR development and accelerates our development schedule.”
ANL, using previously developed equipment and methods, will measure fission product solubilities over the IMSR’s full operating cycle to regulatory quality control standards. Additional investigations at U.S. national laboratories include further confirmatory measurements of thermophysical properties of the IMSR fuel salt and development of IMSR instrumentation and control systems.
About Terrestrial Energy USA
Terrestrial Energy USA is developing the Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) for U.S. market deployment. The IMSR is a Generation IV reactor technology that represents true innovation in cost and functionality. It generates safe, near-zero emissions, reliable and cost-competitive “high-quality” thermal energy for many industrial applications. For electric power generation, it will result in a 50 percent improvement in efficiency over conventional nuclear power plants. When combined with thermal energy, it enables the most energy and cost efficient methods of green hydrogen production at industrial scale. The IMSR extends the applicability of nuclear energy beyond its footprint in on-grid electric power markets and offers a practicable and economical pathway to deep decarbonization on the scale required. Its use of an innovative design based on demonstrated Molten Salt Reactor technology and Standard Assay Low Enriched Uranium, hastens deployment and supports IMSR power plant commercial operation within a decade.
