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Final environmental assessment issued for US reactor experiment

Friday, 4 August 2023

The US Department of Energy has released a final environmental assessment and draft finding of no significant impact for the design, construction, and operation of the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment, which is to be built by Southern Company at Idaho National Laboratory.

Final environmental assessment issued for US reactor experiment — A rendering of MCRE (Image: Southern Company)

Southern Company is leading a collaborative effort to design, build and test the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment at INL, under a DOE Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program Risk Reduction award. The team will construct the experimental system offsite and ship it to INL, where it will be fuelled using materials currently in storage at the laboratory.

The proof-of-concept critical fast-spectrum salt reactor is scheduled to run for about six months at INL, after which it will be decommissioned. The results will provide data crucial to the development of TerraPower's Molten Chloride Fast Reactor design. It will use liquid salts as both a coolant and fuel, allowing it to operate at high temperatures to produce heat or electricity more efficiently than today’s reactors.

The final environmental assessment and proposed FONSI will be open for public comment until 31 August.