Partnership formed for UK Integral Molten Salt Reactor project
Terrestrial Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with UK-based oil and gas company Viaro Energy to collaborate on the deployment of Terrestrial's Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) plant technology for a broad range of potential industrial applications, including powering data centres for AI.
The companies said they will collaborate to "capture commercial opportunities from fast-growing demand for nuclear's clean, firm electric power and industrial heat".
The partners will initially evaluate siting, regulatory, macroeconomic and policy factors to confirm the viability of the project, before proceeding to identifying target sites, followed by detailed evaluation and site selection. The two companies intend to form a joint venture for the delivery of the IMSR plant project in the UK, with Viaro providing the infrastructure and investment for the deployment, and Terrestrial leading the nuclear system development and procurement activities.
"While the timelines for the project are dependent on various external factors, which will be assessed at agreed-upon milestones, the parties anticipate the project will reach a Final Investment Decision in 2030," the companies said.
"Viaro and Terrestrial Energy share a strategic vision that a large expansion of nuclear energy supply is required to achieve energy security and net-zero emission goals and that small and modular power plants employing advanced Generation IV technologies, such as IMSR can lead this expansion," said Terrestrial Energy CEO Simon Irish. "Viaro has been successfully growing its market footprint in a core industrial sector while embracing the need for the energy transition, and we are excited about the potential that this partnership holds."
"I am immensely pleased about the strategic partnership with Terrestrial Energy," said Viaro Energy CEO Francesco Mazzagatti. "We have now spent a year conducting market research of the different nuclear technology providers, and we believe Terrestrial Energy's IMSR technology is among the most competitive ones currently out there.
"The Terrestrial Energy team has successfully circumnavigated a lot of the production and supply chain challenges that other companies struggle with, such as fuel supply, and their experience in this sphere is impressive. Viaro has long stated its intentions to support the energy transition in a stable and strategic manner, and we continue to view safe nuclear energy as the most promising response to addressing climate change."
Terrestrial's IMSR is a 4th generation reactor that uses molten salt as both fuel and coolant, with integrated components, which can supply heat directly to industrial facilities or use it to generate electrical power. It does this using conventional nuclear reactor fuel - standard assay low-enriched uranium (LEU).
In August 2023, Terrestrial signed a contract with Westinghouse subsidiary Springfields Fuels Limited for the design and construction of an IMSR fuel pilot plant. The Springfields nuclear fuel manufacturing site in Preston, UK, has extensive infrastructure available to support the fuel supply for IMSR development, and scalable to support a fleet of IMSR plants operating in the 2030s.
In April this year, Terrestrial signed an agreement with Schneider Electric - a supplier of digital control systems for energy management - to collaborate on developing zero-carbon energy solutions for industrial facilities and large data centres based on Terrestrial's Integral Molten Salt Reactor.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission last year completed Phase 2 of its vendor design review process for the IMSR, finding no fundamental barriers to licensing the reactor for commercial use, in what Terrestrial described as the first-ever regulatory review of a commercial nuclear plant using molten salt reactor technology and the first advanced, high-temperature fission technology to complete a review of this type.
