Can core reactors help the future of Texas?
A project under construction at Abilene Christian University could help answer this question. It is a research reactor that has cooled with melted salt and not water.
The fuel is liquid and not firm – two main differences in hundreds of reactors that generate electricity all over the world today.
The concept was done in Tennessee pioneering work in the OAK Ridge National Laboratory in the OAK Ridge National Laboratory. A melted salt reactor ran several years before the project ended in the late 1960s. However, a group of scientists, investors and academic institutions believe that technology is worth pursuing again.
“You have proven this with the reactor in Oak Ridge, which was safer and cleaner and more efficient. And if that's true, why shouldn't we do that?” said Dr. Rusty Towell, director of the next laboratory, a recently built research system on the ACU campus.
The university has teamed up with Natura Resources, a startup company based in Abilene. “This is a demonstration system that then flows into the reactor used,” said Doug Robison, founder of Naturaa.
Naturaa's goal is to develop commercial salt reactors. The ACU president says that it fits the university's mission.
“We don't want to sake research for research. We would like to deal with research work that bless the world,” said Dr. Phil Schubert. The University of Texas in Austin, Texas A & M, Texas Tech and Georgia Tech are also involved in the project.
The Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted a license to build the reactor in September 2024. The underground concrete trench in which the reactor will sit is complete. It is 25 feet deep and the walls and the floor are four feet thick. It is part of what Towell says that the project is sure.
“I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't live and work in a place where it wasn't sure,” said Towell.
If one of the radioactive liquid fuel escapes from the reactor, Towell says that it would drain into the concrete ditch. Because it is melted, he explains that it would harden like candle wax. “So nothing escapes. Nothing goes on in the atmosphere and nothing licks all over the world,” said Towell.
Another element of the design that supporters say is certain that the system works with low pressure, which also differs from today's reactors.
“So we won't say what happened at Fukushima. That was a printing publication,” said Robison, referring to the disaster in a Japanese nuclear power plant in 2011.
If it sounds too good to be true, some people think.
“Every reactor technology has its plus points and minus,” said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research outside of Washington, DC, he said, the experiment on OAK Ridge showed how challenging salt reactor technology melted can be.
“It was closed 225 times over the course of a few years,” he said. “Usually these switching offs were unexpected.”
According to Towell, there have been great progress since then, including supercomputers and high-tech materials. The mechanical systems of the research reactor are already being developed and tested.
“So let's slowly just knock down things that are roadblocks,” said Towell.
The first components of the reactor itself are expected to arrive in the next laboratory at the end of the year. It could be completed by the end of 2026. The NRC must carry out a further review and issue another license before the reactor can start operating.
If this timeline applies, Natura believes that it can use its first commercial salt reactor just a few years later. “One of the things we have already proven is that you can build site for melted salt reactors very quickly and quite inexpensively,” said Robison.
A commercial reactor would be greater than the research version of Abilene Christian, but smaller than today's commercial reactors. It would also be modular in design and makes mass production easier. The idea is to place reactors wherever large amounts of electricity are required. Natura hopes to have a commercial reactor ready by 2030.
Makhijani is skeptical. Even if the technology can be mastered, he does not believe that it can be practical.
“I don't see a small modular reactor road that will overcome the basic weaknesses of costs, time and susceptibility to recalls,” he said. According to Makhijani, Texas should concentrate on more wind and solar energy.
However, the Schubert von ACU says that there is worth developing something new, even if success is not guaranteed. “Sometimes it doesn't matter whether the end of the trip is as viable as you may believe that there is worthwhile on the trip itself.”
Back in the next laboratory Towell says that the trip is going well.
“We learn enormous quantities.” Robison is also satisfied with the progress of the project.
“We are successful to use commercial reactors,” he said.
And since Texas grows appetite for energy, Robison claims that there is no time to waste.
“Now it's not the right time. We should have done it 15 years ago.”