Terrestrial Energy USA has secured $3.15m in funding by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
Image: Headquarters of US Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C., US. Photo: courtesy of US Department of Energy/Wikipedia.org.
The funding will support development of a next-generation molten salt pump that meets the performance requirements for use in Terrestrial Energy’s Integral Molten Salt Reactors (IMSR) and other Generation-IV advanced reactors.
Terrestrial Energy USA will lead a team that includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and pump manufacturer Hayward Tyler Inc.
Terrestrial Energy USA CEO Simon Irish said: “We applaud the Department of Energy’s strategic vision of supporting technologies that will expedite the deployment of Generation IV advanced nuclear power plants and improve their performance, which is the aim of the next-generation pumps we are developing for our IMSR and other Generation IV advanced reactors.
“Generation IV nuclear power plants, such as Terrestrial Energy’s IMSR, have the potential to play a transformative role in meeting the future energy needs of the United States and the world.”
Terrestrial Energy USA received this competitive award from ARPA-E’s Modeling-Enhanced Innovations Trailblazing Nuclear Energy Reinvigoration (MEITNER) program, under which project teams develop innovative technologies for lower cost and safer advanced nuclear reactors.
Working with ORNL and Hayward Tyler, Terrestrial Energy USA will use the ARPA-E funding to begin developing a more robust molten salt pump that is more efficient, requiring lower maintenence while operating at higher temperatures.
Source: Company Press Release