US TerraPower Awards Additional Natrium Reactor Supplier Contracts

US nuclear innovation company TerraPower announced on August 31 that it has selected 12 suppliers to continue advancing the supply chain for its first Natrium nuclear power plant——Kemmerer Unit 1 in Wyoming, USA. The project is currently under construction, and TerraPower describes it as the first utility-scale advanced reactor project under construction in the Western Hemisphere.

Pat Young, Senior Vice President of TerraPower and Director of the Natrium Project, stated that securing supplier contracts is a critical step in building the resilient supply chain needed for advanced nuclear power plant construction. With the signing of these contracts, the company is expanding its network of qualified partners and advancing the key milestones required for Natrium reactor commercialization.

The contracts cover design, monitoring, control, heat exchange, valve, and instrumentation equipment related to the reactor and sodium process systems, while also supporting the construction of the first sodium testing and filling facility at the Natrium plant in Wyoming.

Specific contracts include: Merrick & Company for the pin removal unit design and sodium cover gas monitoring skid design; Mirion Technologies Inc. for the plant network system; BWXT Canada Ltd. for control rod drive mechanism design; Talley Brown Engineering for the sodium cover gas tagged gas analysis cabinet; Marmen Inc. for the fuel transfer lift device design; Thermal Engineering International USA Inc. for the air—sodium heat exchanger; Jensen Hughes for the discharge and expansion tank design; Boston Government Services LLC for the sodium cover gas control skid design; James Fisher Technologies LLC for the ex-vessel storage tank design; KHRONE for the intermediate heat transfer system flow meters; and Valserve for the intermediate heat transfer system discharge valves.

The Natrium technology features a 345 MW sodium-cooled fast reactor design paired with a molten salt energy storage system. According to TerraPower, the storage system can boost the plant's output to 500 MW when needed, enabling the unit to maintain stable baseload output while also having the capability to increase power during peak demand periods.

The first Natrium nuclear power plant is being developed under the US Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). The program employs a public-private partnership model, and the project is expected to be completed by 2030. TerraPower also stated that it is advancing the commercialization of Natrium technology and has reached an agreement with Meta to build up to 8 Natrium nuclear power plants in the United States by 2035.