Moltex joins $7 million DOE project to test recycled molten salt fuel
Total project cost is $8.8 million, with Moltex contributing $1.35 million in direct and in-kind cost share.
Key facts
- Idaho National Laboratory leads the project; aims at first irradiation of transuranic chloride salt fuel
- Fuel fabricated from transuranic material already at the laboratory, tested in the Advanced Test Reactor
- Moltex's waste-to-stable-salt process recovers transuranics from used fuel for its waste-burner reactor
- Argonne National Laboratory and Moltex provide modeling support; Southern Company provides utility input
Moltex Energy USA said on November 2 it is taking part in IMPACT, an Idaho National Laboratory (INL)-led project awarded $7 million by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to develop and test molten chloride fuel containing recycled nuclear materials.
IMPACT — Irradiation of Molten Plutonium Actinide Chloride fuels and Testing — aims to conduct the first irradiation of transuranic chloride salt fuel. INL will fabricate the fuel from transuranic materials already at the laboratory, characterize it and test it in the Advanced Test Reactor. Argonne National Laboratory and Moltex will provide modeling support and reactor design input. Southern Company will provide a utility perspective.
The total project cost is $8.8 million, with Moltex contributing $1.35 million in direct and in-kind cost share. IMPACT is part of ARPA-E's High-Performance Optimized Recycled Nuclear Isotopes for Gen IV Reactors (HORNIG) program.
Moltex said the project is intended to generate fuel data relevant to its WAste To Stable Salt (WATSS) process, which is designed to recover transuranics from used fuel for its Stable Salt Reactor – Wasteburner (SSR-W).
