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By David Dalton
12 January 2024
Moltex Energy aims to deploy first-of-a-kind SSR-W plant at Point Lepreau
A patent has been granted in Canada for advanced nuclear power company Moltex Energy Canada’s spent nuclear fuel recycling process that converts uranium oxide fuel into molten salt reactor fuel.
Invented by Moltex co-founder and chief scientist Ian Scott, the innovative process is known known as “waste to stable salt”, or Watss.
In the process, spent nuclear fuel is converted into several parts. Transuranics – the long-lived, man-made elements – along with some uranium and fission products are extracted into a salt which forms the fuel for Moltex’s under-development stable salt reactor-waste burner (SSR-W) plant, avoiding the need for high-purity separations.
Moltex’s 300-MW SSR-W and some other reactors can use this fuel, converting it to clean energy while destroying these long-lived waste products created by nuclear fission, Moltex said.
The New Brunswick-based company said recently that rigorous experiments had demonstrated the viability of its Watss process.
Moltex says its process is notable because conventional spent fuel reprocessing is complex and expensive. “Conventional reprocessing either directly produces pure plutonium, or can be altered to produce pure plutonium, which could be misused for nefarious purposes,” the company said.
“In contrast, the Watss process is unable to produce pure plutonium, making the process far safer for current and future generations. This also makes the process simpler and less expensive.”
Moltex chief executive officer Rory O’Sullivan said the patent is testament to Moltex’s commitment to innovation and to finding improvements in existing nuclear energy processes.
“Waste is one of the most important considerations in the nuclear industry, and Moltex’s process offers an elegant and cost-effective solution to safely reducing waste stockpiles.”
Moltex has been chosen by NB Power to develop its reactor technology in New Brunswick, Canada, with the goal of deploying first-of-a-kind SSR-W, Watss and GridReserve units at the Point Lepreau nuclear station site. GridReserve is a thermal energy storage tank, also under development by Moltex, enabling the SSR-W to act as a peaking plant.
