Oakville, Ont.-based Terrestrial Energy Inc. took a step toward commercial deployment of its molten-salt small nuclear reactor Wednesday as the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) concluded its reactor design broadly complies with regulatory standards.
Terrestrial is one of a host of global companies racing to commercialize a new generation of reactors – smaller with modular components making it more affordable, and with safety features that address at least some of the concerns over nuclear accidents.
Clearing the first regulatory hurdle at the nuclear safety commission will help Terrestrial to attract customers and investors, with the aim of having a commercial project up and running late in the next decade. Terrestrial has now completed the first phase of a prelicensing review, which provides a regulatory opinion that, given its design features, the company could obtain a licence to construct such a reactor.
“License-ability is the principle risk for a vendor in commercializing its reactor system,” Terrestrial chief executive Simon Irish said in an interview from Oakville. “A customer utility will only agree to buy, build and operate a reactor system if license-ability risk is viewed as acceptably low.”
Shaw McCarthy – Globe and Mail – November 8, 2017.
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