Copenhagen Atomics Developing Thorium-Based Molten Salt Reactor

Thursday - September 21 2023, 08:56 UTC - 1 year ago

Copenhagen Atomics is developing a thorium based molten salt reactor which will deliver safer, cleaner, and cheaper 100 MW thermal energy. They are constructing a 1 MWth demo reactor to validate their design and are expecting an assembly line mass construction of shipping container sized waste burner molten salt reactors to be ready by 2028.

Copenhagen Atomics is developing a thorium based molten salt reactor with the same footprint as a 40 foot shipping container, which delivers 100 MW thermal energy per unit and is expected to reach an electricity price (LCoE) below $20/MWh in a mass manufacturing scenario. The Waste Burner is expected to be online in 2028, and will run on a combination of thorium and used nuclear fuel reducing the storage period of the existing nuclear waste from 100,000 to 300 years .

The 100 MWth thorium based MSR Waste Burner will deliver abundant energy in a cheaper, safer and cleaner manner. They are in the process of building a non-fission prototype for the 1 MWth demo reactor, which will validate the reactor design using a non-nuclear fuel salt. They expect to have an operational 1 MWth demo reactor ready by 2025. After 2028, they will have an assembly line mass construction of shipping container sized waste burner molten salt reactors .

The US made and operated the first molten salt thermal reactor (about 2Wth) back in the 1960s at Oak Ridge. China recently built a small demo molten salt reactor as well. Molten Salt nuclear technology has been built. Molten Salt nuclear fission needs to be made and operated at scale with good economics. It should have good economics.Today, electricity only accounts for approx. 20% of the world’s combined energy consumption, whereas energy for industrial use, fuel for cars, ships, planes and heating your home make up for the remaining 80% .

That is a lot of energy that needs to be transitioned to green energy, which in many cases cannot be done by renewable energy. In the few places where diesel is being phased out, ammonia will become an ever-increasing part of fuel consumption as this can be used for the mining, transportation, and shipping industries, to name a few. Green ammonia can therefore be used for some of the hard-to-abate industries .

This project combines the knowledge of the old industry-leading companies Topsoe, Alfa Laval, Aalborg CSP, Pupuk Kaltim and Pertamina New & Renewable Energy and our molten salt reactor technology.