Terrestrial Energy has signed an agreement with the Department of Energy to support the deployment of its molten salt reactor under the DOE pilot reactor program.
Formally called an “other transaction authority” contract, the deal is a flexible, non-traditional legal agreement between the government and industry used to bypass traditional, rigid contract rules to carry out research and development, the company said in a Tuesday press release.
The goal of DOE’s pilot reactor program is to have at least three reactors reach criticality by July 4. Terrestrial Energy is one of 10 nuclear companies that were selected by the agency.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based small modular reactor developer was also selected to partake in DOE’s supplementary nuclear fuel line pilot program. It is working to develop its fuel line assembly to demonstrate a fuel salt fabrication process in a phased approach.
Terrestrial Energy said in its news release that the agreement establishes a collaboration with DOE to review and authorize the design and operation of its integral molten salt reactor (IMSR).
Terrestrial Energy’s commercial IMSR plant is designed to produce 390 megawatts of electricity and 822 megawatts of thermal heat to be used for electricity generation and industrial heat applications. The company said its reactor can be used to provide thermal heat for manufacturing and data center operations.
The company plans to use a form of standard-assay low-enriched uranium in the reactor to avoid supply problems with high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel.