Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Antares will partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to perform an independent, technical audit of Antares R1. ORNL’s Reactor Analysis Group will verify design calculations, including core neutronics and thermal hydraulics. This project will yield high confidence that hardware test campaigns predicated on neutronics data are valid, allowing Antares to move through test stages to a fueled demonstration of the system.

To help get ANA’s Project SparkHub off to a quick start, ANA will partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to use the OR-SAGE tool to perform site screening and down select a number of sites that could be amenable to siting nuclear facilities. The sites will also be located in regions where there is strong incentive to build data centers. After the project, ANA will continue work and begin licensing activities to obtain an Early Site Permit on a technology-neutral basis to support development of the site.

Terrestrial Energy will partner with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) using their expertise in thermogravimetric analysis to analyze the IMSR fuel salt. This project will help determine what chemical species are present in the fuel salt vapor as a function of temperature and partial pressure, whether the fuel salt decomposes at elevated temperatures, and the kinetics of fuel salt vaporization. The work will support the optimization of the reactor components in the IMSR Core-unit as well as the overall design.