Agreement could see prototype microreactor built at Berkeley

In September last year, a planning application was submitted for a new nuclear energy-focused facility on a brownfield site that was once part of the Berkeley nuclear power plant in south-west England. Planning and development consultancy Turley submitted the outline planning application for the proposal, which would feature nuclear and clean energy research and development facilities, on behalf of Chiltern Vital Berkeley (CVB), part of Chiltern Vital Group (CVG).

The site comprises a parcel of previously developed land which formed part of the wider Berkeley nuclear power station. It is currently occupied by the Gloucestershire Science and Technology Park, acquired by CVB in 2024, and has an established history for nuclear, employment and education uses. If approved, the development will offer up to 600,000 square feet (5.6 hectares) of new R&D, laboratory, office, manufacturing, and education facilities, creating up to 1,000 jobs.

CVB says it is in final-stage negotiations with multiple nuclear and energy technology companies wishing to locate on the Berkeley Green site.

Cambridge Atomworks has now announced that it has signed a letter of intent with CVG on building its prototype Odin microreactor on the site.

The Odin microreactor is described as "a low-pressure, molten-salt-cooled, solid-fuel fission reactor integrated with power conversion and heat rejection systems, enabling substantial and compact, standalone electricity supply without external connections". Cambridge Atomworks plans to have an operational prototype by 2030.

"Cambridge Atomworks agreeing to site their prototype research and development facility at Berkeley represents another important step forward for the development of the Berkeley Green Science and Technology Park by Chiltern Vital Berkeley as a global zero-carbon energy technology, education and training hub within the Severn Edge Nuclear Supercluster," said Chris Turner, CEO of CVG and CVB.

Cambridge Atomworks said the agreement with CVG was "a major step forward in the regulatory development of the Odin microreactor and will provide key answers about the combined physics and thermal hydraulics of the microreactor required by regulators across the world".

Cambridge Atomworks CEO Ian Farnan said: "After our physics demonstration campaign has been completed, our objective is to use the Berkeley-based prototype reactor as a training facility for our global workforce and the UK nuclear workforce. Currently, there is no reactor training facility for this purpose in the UK."

Cambridge Atomworks was established in 2023, developing the Odin microreactor for the US firm NANO Nuclear on an outsourced consulting basis. Last year it bought back the intellectual property, with a letter of intent signed last September. In March this year, it signed a memorandum of understanding with engineering, management and development consultancy Mott MacDonald to work on the development of the Odin microreactor.

The company says the Odin microreactor is designed "with air as the ultimate heat sink and to be walk-away safe in any deployment scenario, ie, it does not need to be close to a water source. The reactor can be cooled via natural circulation both by the molten salt and the reactor auxiliary air cooling system".