NRC Issues Construction Permit for TerraPower’s Natrium Advanced Reactor

The Natrium reactor is a 345-megawatt electric sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt energy storage system that can quickly boost the system's output to 500 megawatts for increased flexibility and reliability.

Its simplified design and use of advanced construction methods will make it faster and more affordable to build, and its constant high operating temperature can be used to generate heat or electricity to drive other energy-intensive manufacturing processes.

Natrium is one of two projects supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program to demonstrate first-of-a-kind reactor technologies.

The project was awarded cost-shared funding from DOE to advance the reactor design and licensing, fuel development and qualification, and construction of two supporting facilities to fabricate fuel and test the reactor's sodium coolant technology, respectively.