Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
9/25/2015
TerraPower and the China National Nuclear Corp. have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly complete the traveling wave reactor (TWR) design and commercialize the technology, the company announced this week. The MOU, according to the Washington-based nuclear reactor design specialist, “will speed technology development, promote clean energy growth, and enable global economic growth in both countries.”
TerraPower is working on a TWR design intended to close the nuclear loop. Current reactors operate in an open loop, in which spent fuel and radioactive waste byproducts cannot be reused. However, TWRs reprocess these wastes by using waves that breed and then burn the fuel over and over again within the reactor. “Today, this MOU represents our first step on a journey that promises to yield tremendous benefits for all of us,” TerraPower CEO Lee McIntire said in a statement. “The TerraPower-CNNC collaboration on advanced nuclear technology aims to benefit the world by pioneering new options in civilian nuclear energy that address safety, environmental and cost concerns.”
The collaboration developed through the cooperation of the U.S. and Chinese governments. In December 2013, the two governments announced an agreement that would allow the exchange and joint development of a TWR design. To achieve these ends, the agreement permits the sharing of ideas, scientists, and materials that may advance the technology, while also including clauses to protect against proliferation concerns.
“This MOU was made possible under policies and agreements for cooperation by the governments of United States and China,” McIntire said in a blog post on the company’s website. “For the past seven years, TerraPower’s talented professionals have worked very closely with government representatives to facilitate technology and policy discussions. Efforts among the staff at the U.S. Department of State, Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as their counterparts from the Chinese Government fostered mechanisms for collaboration.”
TWRs are the latest technology aimed at closing the nuclear loop. They would be designed to operate for an extended period of time using fuels such as natural uranium, depleted uranium, spent light water reactor fuel, or thorium. Notably, Bill Gates, who helped establish TerraPower in 2008, has gone on the record as saying he envisions that this technology could provide energy for 800 years using only a small amount of uranium.
