Episode 171 | Liquid Lead | newcleo
I’ve now covered four small modular reactor (SMR) developers on this podcast. All understand how challenging bringing a nuclear reactor design to the market can be, from a policy, logistical, and technological perspective. What I have found is they all incorporate an existing technology, making the novel more familiar.
London-based newcleo wants to miniaturize and update the lead-cooled fast reactor design. These reactors saw brief action in Soviet submarines in the 70s, so you might have missed it.
newcleo’s CEO, Stefano Buono, says the decision to use lead instead of water actually results in a lighter reactor design. Unlike pressurized water reactors, he says the vessel walls can be thinner.
This leads to what may be the most energy-dense reactor design I have seen. Their “Small LFR” design is 200 MWe. Stefano says it can fit in a 6m diameter-by-6m tall vessel, capable of transport.
This “fast reactor” would also be able to use mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. MOX holds the promise of consuming the tons of spent nuclear fuel around the world.
“The nuclear industry produces millions of tons of waste,” says Stefano. “You can use this ‘mix’ in a fast reactor for making energy.”
The U.S. currently has no plans to use MOX fuel in their reactors. A scrapped facility in South Carolina would have produced MOX from nuclear weapons. This facility was opposed by the Obama and Trump administrations in favor of a “dilute and dispose solution.”
newcleo, founded in 2021, is currently weighing their options in the United States, including whether it makes sense to ship MOX to our shores if regulators won’t allow it to be produced here.
In the meantime, plans are underway to build a test facility in Bologna, with operations expected in 2024. Stefano says he expects commercial operations by 2030-2032. A typical facility may contain up to four of their Small LFRs. He says the key is to be agile enough to “ramp up” and down with renewable energy, much like natural gas today.
“We need to think of innovation not only inside the reactor but also outside,” he says, “so the modularity can help where it is needed.”
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