Name of the Project
Natrium plant – Kemmer Unit 1.

Location
The reactor is being built near a retiring coal-fired power plant in Wyoming, in the US.

Project Owner/s
Nuclear innovation company TerraPower is building the plant through a public–private partnership with the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

Project Description
TerraPower is the only advanced nuclear developer to start construction on a commercial-scale project in the US. The plant is being developed through the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, a public–private partnership.

The plant design features a 345 MW sodium-cooled fast reactor with a patented molten salt-based energy storage system. The storage technology can boost the system’s output to 500 MW of power when needed, as it is designed to keep base output steady, ensuring constant reliability, and can quickly ramp up when demand peaks – it is the only advanced reactor design with this unique feature.

Potential Job Creation
About 1 600 workers will be needed for construction at the project’s peak. 

Once the plant is operational, the company estimates that 250 people will support day-to-day activities, including plant security.

Capital Expenditure
The programme authorises a 50:50 cost share and authorises up to $2-billion for the project. TerraPower and its partners will match this investment dollar for dollar. 

The first-of-its-kind cost for the Natrium demonstration plant will include the reactor design and licensing, codes and methods development, construction of the sodium test facility, the development of fuel and a fuel fabrication facility, as well as fuel qualification.

Planned Start/End Date
The project is expected to be completed in 2030. 

Latest Developments
TerraPower received notification from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on March 4 that the commissioners had voted to award Kemmerer Unit 1 with a construction permit. This is the first commercial-scale, advanced nuclear power plant to ever receive this permit.

The company plans to start construction on the plant in the coming weeks.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Equipos Nucleares (production of the reactor head); Doosan Enerbility (supply of the core barrel, guard vessel and internal supports for the Natrium reactor); HD Hyundai (manufacture of the reactor vessel); Marmen (construction of rotating plug); James Fisher Technologies (design and fabrication of the sodium cover gas and test and fill facility filter skids); Mirion Technologies (supply of the radiation monitoring and nuclear instrumentation systems); and Curtiss-Wright (design and delivery of the training simulator and the supply of the distributed control systems for the 345 MW sodium-cooled fast reactor).

Contact Details for Project Information
TerraPower, email press@terrapower.com.