Under the noncompetitive agreement, the companies will collaborate to establish a better understanding on the requirements and economics of reprocessing spent fuel, separating it into four waste streams, and then reusing, managing, or disposing of those streams separately.
The technology: Copenhagen Atomics is currently developing a 100-MWt molten salt breeder reactor small enough to fit in a shipping container. To “kickstart” the fusion process, the thorium reactor would use plutonium recovered from spent nuclear fuel. According to Copenhagen Atomics, its reactor will be capable of generating an additional 10 times more energy from spent fuel from when it was fresh.
In reprocessing spent fuel, Copenhagen Atomics would separate the fuel into four waste streams: fuel rod cladding (typically zircaloy), uranium (U-238, U-235, U-236, U-234, and trace amounts of other impurities), fission products, and transuranics (primarily plutonium with other impurities).
According to the agreement, the first three waste streams may or may not be valuable and could incur costs to manage or dispose of, depending on the circumstances and technology available.
The collaboration: The agreement stipulates that DeepGeo will work on the requirements of handling, transporting, and either selling or disposing of materials generated by the reprocessing of spent fuel. Copenhagen Atomics will work on the technical and economic aspects of reprocessing, estimating the quantity and purity of the waste streams.
The companies agreed to hold at least one online meeting every quarter, as well as one in-person meeting once a year, to discuss potential projects for collaboration, such as joint funding opportunities. The companies will also share their findings related to the economics, approval, and technical aspects of recycling and reprocessing spent fuel using molten salt technology.
They said it: “This partnership between Copenhagen Atomics and DeepGeo helps enable the conversion of spent nuclear fuel into a valuable resource rather than an expensive liability, which countries and companies have to deal with,” said Thomas Jam Pedersen, chief executive officer and cofounder of Copenhagen Atomics. “Recycling a large share of spent nuclear fuel, this so-called nuclear waste would allow them to sell it for a positive value, further covering the cost of recycling and transport”.
Link Murray, president of DeepGeo, added, “Working together we can better understand the value of different fuel and waste needs of advanced nuclear reactors, help to accelerate their deployment, and ensure the future sustainability of nuclear energy.”
