Moltex Energy

Moltex Energy take a novel approach to the next generation of nuclear reactor. They recognise that liquid fuel has many advantages over conventional solid fuel reactors, but also recognise that nuclear reactors need to be much cheaper to be a viable source of electricity. They also recognise that developing a new nuclear reactor design is extremely expensive due to strict regulation[5].

Their design philosophy is to inherit as much as possible from conventional solid fuel reactor design, and make minimal changes to take advantage of liquid salt based fuel. This will minimise cost whilst maximising benefit.

Their unique approach is to put a molten salt based fuel into assemblies resembling conventional nuclear fuel rods[6]. This approach avoids the main problems with conventional solid fuel rods. During use the solid fuel pellets expand and can split the zirconium casing, causing a highly radioactive spillage. This means that only 3% of solid fuel can be burnt before a rod is retired and that the resulting waste contains radioactive by-products that take thousands of years to decay. A molten salt fuel rod could completely eliminate both of these issues and result in waste with a half-life of only 300 years.

Moltex have 3 main visions for reactor designs:

• Wasteburner[7] (SSR-W) is a fast reactor that uses recycled nuclear waste as fuel.
• Uranium[8] (SSR-U) fully burns fresh conventional fuel and therefore eliminates reprocessing and minimises waste half-life.
• Thorium[9] a future nuclear fuel which first needs to be "bred" into Uranium before being used to produce energy.

Moltex Energy have their first contract with the Canadian government for their first reactor in New Brunswick[10] which is scheduled to come online in the early 2030's. The SSR-W will consume the relatively large quantity of waste generated by Canada's CANDU reactors[11].

MoltexFLEX[12] is a subsidiary formed in 2022[13] in the North East of England. It is pioneering research into methods of using molten salt nuclear reactor technology to use alongside solar and wind and fill in the gaps when they do not produce sufficient electricity. Moltex also promote the use of molten salt as an energy storage medium which is much cheaper than batteries[14].