Dutch support for molten salt reactor demonstrator facility

The announcement was made at the Made for Nuclear event, where Thorizon and a wide network of partners signed a joint Ambition Agreement to accelerate the project. The coalition brings together leading Dutch industrial companies including VDL Groep, nuclear operator EPZ and engineering and construction firm Haskoning, supported by a strong ecosystem of universities, knowledge institutes, manufacturing, energy and high-tech service providers. Several Dutch provinces have confirmed their engagement and are now assessing potential sites for the demonstrator, as well as opportunities to establish an innovation hub around the facility with testing capabilities for materials and components.

The Thorizon Pioneer is part of Thorizon's roadmap to industrialise molten salt reactors (MSRs). The facility will be a smaller, non-commercial version of the Thorizon reactor focused on validating the reactor core without electricity production. The Thorizon Pioneer will be the first nuclear molten salt installation operating in Europe, the company said, providing unique opportunities for research and development. 

"It is designed to demonstrate Thorizon's ability to design, license and build a nuclear installation," Thorizon said. "The Pioneer will also enable the qualification of supply chain partners, testing of key materials and components, which is central to lowering construction and operating costs in the full-scale reactor."

"The Netherlands has a great and entrepreneurial manufacturing and services industry, skills we intend to combine with the R&D expertise and manufacturing expertise in nuclear," said Thorizon CEO Kiki Lauwers. "We can build on the knowledge of the Pallas medical isotope reactor and ongoing research at TU Delft and Differ. We hope to continue the strong cooperation in Europe to make this project a success and thank our partners and the provinces involved for this opportunity."

MSRs use molten fluoride salts as primary coolant, at low pressure. They may operate with epithermal or fast neutron spectrums, and with a variety of fuels. Much of the interest today in reviving the MSR concept relates to using thorium (to breed fissile uranium-233), where an initial source of fissile material such as plutonium-239 needs to be provided.

To prepare for European licensing, Thorizon said it is engaged in a joint preparatory safety review with the Dutch, French and Belgium nuclear safety authorities. The next major milestone is securing a suitable site. Over the coming months, Thorizon will work with several provinces and others to evaluate potential locations, ideally one already licensed for research-reactor activities. In parallel, the company is advancing the design of the Pioneer, expanding engineering collaboration with industrial partners and finalising the financing strategy for the demonstrator.

The project will be supported through a combination of private investment and public funding. Thorizon is backed by Positron Ventures, Invest-NL and the regional development agencies of Zeeland and North Holland, and has secured grants from the French government, the European Commission's Joint Transition Fund in Zeeland and the Province of Brabant. The initiative is also prioritised by the European Commission within the EU SMR Alliance.

Thorizon - a spin-off from NRG, which operates the High Flux Reactor in Petten in the Netherlands - is developing a 250 MWt/100 MWe molten salt reactor, targeted at large industrial customers and utilities. The molten salt fuel adopted by Thorizon uses a combination of long-lived elements from reprocessed used nuclear fuel and thorium. The reactor will be able to recycle long-lived waste from existing nuclear facilities. The Thorizon One concept is unique in that the core is composed of a set of cartridges that is replaced every five to ten years. This, the company says, overcomes two molten salt design obstacles: material corrosion and handling of used fuel volumes.

The company says it is conducting pre-feasibility studies at three nuclear-designated sites in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, targeting construction by 2030.