New York & Oakville, Ontario: Terrestrial Energy, a nuclear technology company seeking to bring its Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) technology to industrial markets in the 2020s, has raised CAD$10 million in Series A funding.
James Reinsch, Terrestrial Energy investor, former President of Bechtel Nuclear and member of the Board of Directors of two large nuclear power utilities said, “Market need has never been greater for true game-changing energy innovation. Nuclear power is recognized as probably the only energy technology today that has the scale to displace polluting energy sources without sacrificing cost-competitiveness and perpetuating energy poverty for billions.”
“Funds will be used to support the Company’s pre-construction and pre-licensing engineering, and to support further engagement with industry and nuclear regulators,” said Simon Irish, CEO, Terrestrial Energy. “These programs allow the Company to demonstrate to industry the commercial merits of the IMSR design.”
Terrestrial Energy describes its technology as follows:
“Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) are nuclear reactors that use a fluid fuel in the form of a molten fluoride or chloride salt. This is a fundamentally different approach compared to conventional nuclear systems that use solid fuel. A liquid fuel offers unique advantages not enjoyed by reactors that use solid fuel. As an MSR fuel salt is a liquid, it functions as both the fuel (producing the heat) and the coolant (transporting the heat away and ultimately to the power plant). Terrestrial Energy’s IMSR features a self-contained reactor Core-unit, (the “IMSR Core-unit”), within which all key components are permanently sealed for its operating lifetime. At the end of its 7-year design life, the IMSR Core-unit is shut down and left to cool. At the same time, power is switched to a new IMSR Core-unit, installed a short time before in an adjacent silo within the facility. Once sufficiently cool, the spent IMSR Core-unit is removed and prepared for long-term storage, a process similar to existing industry protocols for long-term nuclear waste containment. Owing to the extremely low costs of the IMSR Core-unit, it is commercially feasible to operate the IMSR facility in this manner. The sealed nature of the IMSR Core-unit has other benefits, such as permitting operational safety and simplicity.”
Headquartered in Oakville, the company was founded in 2013.