Gates will do the modular reactor with the Japanese. In Europe, research languishes …
TerraPower, the company founded by Bill Gates that selected Kemmerer, Wyoming, as the site for the construction of the new $ 4 billion "Natrium" nuclear reactor, said in a press release Monday that it had reached an agreement to partner with the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) on sodium-cooled fast reactor nuclear technology.
“We appreciate the experience JAEA will bring to our project and are confident that our program will help them consider advanced reactors in Japan,” said Chris Levesque, president and CEO of TerraPower.
The project to build the first 345 MWe Natrium plant in Wyoming is an attempt to create the first prototype of a series of sodium fast nuclear reactors, similar to those also used for military and civilian uses in Russia and, at the time, in France. Except that the choice made in the USA is for small and minimally invasive implants.
The $ 4 billion Natrium project in Wyoming is funded through a public-private partnership in which the United States Department of Energy is contributing approximately $ 2 billion in construction and licensing costs with TerraPower corresponding to that amount.
The company announced Monday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi FBR Systems "to share data and resources related to the development of advanced sodium fast reactor (SFR ) ".
Japan has been trying to develop a fast sodium nuclear reactor since the 1980s. Liquid Sodium reactors are intrinsically safer, because they do not operate under pressure, like water reactors (therefore there cannot be explosions like in Chernobyl) and allow much higher operating temperatures, but present high technical difficulties, precisely because they operate with a molten metal. The Japanese built the Monju sodium reactor to operate only a few days due to accidents and technical difficulties. Yet on a small scale they work well.
Europe was at the forefront of the fast reactor sector, with several experimental plants built and the French SuperPhenix in operation, but then, with the cheap Russian gas, everything was sidelined. Now, without Russian gas, it is topical again.
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The Gates article will make the modular reactor with the Japanese. In Europe, research languishes… comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/gates-fara-il-reattore-modulare-con-i-giapponesi-in-europa-la-ricerca-langue/ on Wed, 02 Feb 2022 11:00:40 +0000.