Seaborg 'ready to start licensing activities in South Korea'
Denmark's floating compact molten salt reactor developer Seaborg Technologies has raised DKK200 million (USD28 million) from existing investors and appointed a new chairman, and said it is now planning for its first reactor to be ready in the first half of the 2030s.
The company said the funds raised would be used to "accelerate our development" and expand its team in Denmark and Korea "as well as launching several development projects with partners in Europe, the US and Korea".
Niels de Coninck-Smith, a former partner at McKinsey, has been appointed as new chairman. Co-founder and former CEO Troels Schonfeldt is leaving the board.
Andreas Schofield, chief technology officer and co-founder, said: "The design and research basis of our reactor technology has now reached a maturity where we are ready to start licensing activities with the nuclear authorities in South Korea. The next design phase will be focused on scaling up testing and validation in our newly expanded facilities and with external partners in Korea and globally."
Klaus Nyengaard, CEO, said: "Together with our two, strong consortium partners, Samsung Heavy Industries and Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, we plan for our first reactor to be ready in the first half of the 2030s, followed by series production from the mid-2030s."
The background
Seaborg's design is for modular compact molten salt reactor (CMSR) power barges equipped with between two and eight 100 MWe reactors, with an operational life of 24 years. Instead of having solid fuel rods that need constant cooling, the CMSR's fuel is mixed in a liquid salt that acts as a coolant, which means that it will simply shut down and solidify in case of emergency. In May last year it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute "to combine their research and development strengths" to advance nuclear technology.
In 2023 it signed a cooperation agreement with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and Samsung Heavy Industries to establish a consortium to develop floating nuclear power plants featuring Seaborg's compact molten salt reactor technology.
Seaborg, which was founded in 2014 and which has had discussions about deployments in various countries including Norway, Indonesia and Vietnam, had previously aimed to produce a commercial prototype in 2026 and Power Barges from 2028.
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