US-based nuclear technology company TerraPower and engineering company KBR (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) have formed a strategic alliance to establish a long-term collaboration for the commercialisation and deployment of Terapower’s Natrium reactor design in North America, the UK, European Union (EU) and beyond.
The agreement lays the groundwork for establishing a replicable contracting framework for rapid deployment of Natrium reactors that reduces financial risk and ensures cost transparency. TerraPower will lead efforts related to engineering, research and development, supply chain and regulatory activities. KBR may provide Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Management services including design, commissioning, and financial leadership through its unique business model. The companies will work closely with utilities and energy off-takers to implement the new framework.
The Natrium technology features a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt-based energy storage system. The Natrium demonstration project is being constructed near a retiring coal facility in Wyoming. Non-nuclear construction on the project began in June 2024.
The alliance will support planning and strategy for early project development and site characterisation activities, as well as communication strategies for governmental cooperation to promote the Natrium design globally.
“This agreement will build even greater certainty into the Natrium technology’s supply chain, project management and overall business model,” said TerraPower President & CEO Chris Levesque. “Next generation reactors, like the Natrium technology, are a critical energy resource for grids that are increasingly in need of reliable power from clean, baseload energy sources. Our design is a nuclear plus storage option that is well suited to deliver this energy and we are excited about KBR’s ability to help us more rapidly deploy this important technology.”
Jay Ibrahim, KBR President for Sustainable Technology Solutions welcomed the strategic alliance. “By combining KBR’s proven programme management and project delivery capabilities and TerraPower’s expertise in advanced nuclear technology; this collaboration aims to deliver cost-effective, scalable energy solutions for clients globally.”
The Natrium plant has a construction permit application for a commercial reactor pending with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The first Natrium plant is being developed through the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), a public-private partnership. Terrapower says the project is expected to be online in 2030 and will be the first commercial, utility-scale advanced nuclear power plant in the US.
However, while the TerraPower website provides some details of work done with molten salt, it contains very little information about the reactor technology. It is also notable that none of the contracts signed with suppliers relate to the reactor itself.
Basically, the Natrium reactor is a sodium-cooled fast reactor. Currently, the only commercially operating liquid metal-cooled fast reactors are in Russia, using sodium as the coolant. Development of these reactors took decades supported by full government support. In the US and Europe research on fast reactors took place in the 1960s and 1970s but by the early 1990s the US, the UK and Germany had closed down their programmes. France continued with projects for a few more years, finally closing Superphénix in 1998 and Phénix in 2009, In 2019, France also cancelled the Generation IV ASTRID sodium-cooled fast reactor demonstrator design project.
Although interest is now reviving in Europe and the USA, it remains at the early design phase and is probably decades away from implementation. As an example, India’s prototype sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor began fuel loading in March 2024. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) began to design the reactor in 1980 and construction only began in 2004, 24 years later. Technical and financial problems then caused further delays.
