Moltex requests pre-licensing consultation for recycling process

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

The innovative process - short for Waste to Stable Salt - extracts valuable materials and radioactive byproducts from used nuclear fuels in oxide form, including Candu, light water reactor and certain fast reactor fuels, such as mixed oxide (MOX) fuels. It does this in a single, streamlined 24-hour chemical process, with a versatile pretreatment step that the company says can accommodate exotic, experimental, or advanced reactor fuels.

The extracted transuranic elements are concentrated to produce molten salt fuel, while fission products are removed. This reduces waste volumes dramatically but also transforms nuclear waste into clean, dispatchable energy, permanently eliminating long-lived transuranic elements like plutonium, Moltex says. Coupled with the company's Stable Salt Reactor-Wasteburner - or SSR-W - reactor technology, the process enables the creation of a closed fuel cycle.

Moltex said it has now signed a Service Level Agreement with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), which "lays out a framework for engagement and discussions with the regulator to receive feedback on key topical areas such as safety, security and safeguards, to ensure that regulatory requirements are suitably taken into account at every stage of the development".

It added: "This framework will in turn allow the CNSC to facilitate engagement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that the WATSS facility and associated fuel cycle will be compatible with the application of international obligations under the treaty on the non-proliferations of nuclear weapons, and ensure best practices are incorporated into the design as early as possible."

Last month, Moltex announced that its WATSS process had been validated on used fuel bundles from a "commercial reactor in Canada" through hot cell experiments carried out by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, which has the only facilities in Canada equipped to handle used nuclear fuel. The experiments demonstrated that the process can extract 90% of the transuranic material from used fuel in 24 hours, with greater efficiency over longer periods of time, the company said.

The company plans to deploy the first WATSS unit at NB Power's Point Lepreau site in New Brunswick, where it also plans to deploy the first SSR-W by the early to mid-2030s. The commercial-scale demonstration facility will recycle an anticipated 260,000 used fuel bundles from existing Candu pressurised heavy water reactors and create recycled fuel for the entire 60-year operating life of one 300 MW demonstration SSR-W.

Moltex said it is now progressing with the engineering design and safety analysis of the commercial facility.

"We appreciate the opportunity to get early feedback on the design from the CNSC to ensure we are designing a facility that meets the highest standards," said Olivier Gregoire, Licensing Manager at Moltex. "Early engagement minimises the risk of late stage additions to the design which can create needless cost increases. This engagement will streamline site specific licensing."

Earlier this month, it was announced that Moltex Energy Limited - the UK-based parent company of MoltexFlex Limited and Moltex Energy Canada Inc - had entered administration. Offers are currently being sought to acquire the business and assets of Moltex Energy Limited and/or shares in the company's subsidiaries. The deadline for offers is 7 May.