Molten Salt Reactors Just Cleared A Major U.S. Regulatory Hurdle

domestic nuclear energy sector is set to bounce back as the technology finds favor among the public and policymakers alike for its ability to provide round-the-clock clean energy. At a time when data center hyperscalers are driving up energy insecurity and climate deadlines are drawing ever closer, the nuclear option is looking better and better. And not only is the United States trying to kickstart the expansion of traditional nuclear energy, it’s also trying to establish a place at the vanguard of next-gen nuclear energy technologies.Just this month, in a historic first, the Department of Energy approved a Nuclear Safety Design Agreement for a molten salt reactor currently under development by researchers at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. Molten salt reactors (MSRs) are emerging as one of the leading potential technologies that could someday take over the global nuclear power sector, as they may be able to solve or sidestep many of the pitfalls associated with traditional nuclear energy.“MSRs are designed to use less fuel and produce shorter-lived radioactive waste than other reactor types,” describes the United States Department of Energy. “They have the potential to significantly change the safety posture and economics of nuclear energy production by processing fuel online, removing waste products and adding fresh fuel without lengthy refueling outages.” In other words, MSRs are cheaper and safer than a standard nuclear fission reactor.MSRs are also resource-efficient, with the molten salt acting as both the fuel medium and the coolant for the reactor. This also boosts the security and reliability of these models. Typically, nuclear reactors use water for cooling, which can lead to water stress in dry areas and render traditional power plants vulnerable to drought conditions and heat waves. Just this month, France was forced to take a slew of its nuclear reactors offline as a blistering heat wave heated the nation’s rivers to temperatures too high to be used safely for cooling.These reactors are still in an experimental phase, but research labs like the one at Abilene Christian University and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee are pushing the technology closer to becoming a commercial reality. ORNL has made critical inroads into modelling and understanding the behavior of molten salt to better design the reactors for practical application, while Abilene is making major steps forward when it comes to regulatory measures. By securing key safety approval earlier this month, the lab has established “baseline parameters required for federal authorization of facility construction and system testing,” according to a recent report from Interesting Engineering.These developments come against the backdrop of a major push for advanced nuclear power innovation from the Trump administration. The administration has said that it aims to “produce lasting American dominance in the global nuclear energy market” and has earmarked federal funds from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program to accelerate the testing and commercialization of advanced nuclear technologies in order to bring them to scale through Executive Order 14301.However, critics have pointed out that this focus on next-gen nuclear energy technologies like MSRs could actually be undermining Trump’s broader goal of quadrupling domestic nuclear energy production capacity by 2050. A recent op-ed for the Wall Street Journal argued that “The administration is chasing unproven technology when it could encourage Wall Street investment in large-scale reactors,” and, as a result, Trump’s nuclear renaissance is stalling.Moreover, where ‘lasting American dominance’ is concerned, Trump’s bullish approach may be too little, too late. Half of the nuclear reactors under construction in the world are in China, and the country is on track to overtake the United States (and France) to become the world’s biggest producer of nuclear energy within the next ten years. And Beijing is at the forefront of next-gen nuclear technologies as well. China claims to have already built an operational thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR) that allegedly achieved “first criticality on October 11, 2023” and has since been “steadily generating heat through nuclear fission”.By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.comThe Strait of Hormuz Closure Is Already Hitting Supermarket PricesUCLA Scientists Turn Plastic Waste Into Pure Hydrogen FuelCan an AI Black Box Be Trusted to Run a Nuclear Reactor?