ARC might need to redesign its SMR technology: former president

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The former president and CEO of ARC Clean Technology says the company might need to redesign its small modular nuclear reactor technology.

Norm Sawyer points to other companies around the world that pivoted quickly to address the lack of enriched uranium available.

Brunswick News reported earlier this week that ARC is still in search of a new enriched uranium supplier, after it originally planned to buy from Russia.

Meanwhile, Energy Minister Mike Holland says he has been assured that “there’s a queue for North American enriched uranium and we’re in it,” maintaining the company that the Higgs government spent $20 million on won’t be shut out.

Firms around the world developing a new generation of small nuclear reactors to help cut carbon emissions have been forced to face a big problem: The only company that sells the enriched fuel they need is Russian.

“It’s not only ARC, the industry in general is really dealing with the fallout of the war,” Sawyer said, who is now a nuclear consultant through his own firm. “Russia is the main supplier of HALEU around the world.”

High-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) is an integral component of the company’s ARC-100 sodium-cooled fast reactor, as well as a number of other advanced reactors currently in development attempting to achieve smaller designs.

But it’s not as simple as finding that enriched uranium closer to home.

While Canada mines uranium – there are currently five uranium mines and mills operating in Canada, all located in northern Saskatchewan – it does not have uranium enrichment plants.

The U.S. opened its first and only enrichment plant last year, operated by Centrus Energy in Ohio, amid a federal push to find a solution to the Russia problem.

It remains the only facility in the U.S. licensed to enrich uranium.

It currently has contracts with two American companies pursuing SMR technology, although it says it could rapidly expand production with federal investment.

One of those, TerraPower, a nuclear reactor developer founded by Bill Gates, has said Russia’s invasion would mean a delay to the deployment of its Natrium reactor by at least two years.

Other companies have pivoted.

Sawyer pointed to Denmark’s Seaborg Technologies that announced last year it would be changing its proposed SMR fuel from HALEU to low-enriched uranium “due to the risks associated with developing a sufficient supply.”

That resulted in design changes.

It was a move the company said was necessary to meet its planned timeline to see a first group of SMRs ready by 2028.

“There are other ones that aren’t publicized that have done some work to look at other approaches,” Sawyer said.

Ontario-based Terrestrial Energy’s integral molten salt reactor, the first of its kind to finish the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission process known as a vendor design review, uses readily available low-enriched uranium.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, the company Ontario Power Generation selected to build an SMR at its Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, also doesn’t need HALEU.

“It’s not something that can’t be fixed,” Sawyer said.

“There are people trying to build plants now to produce HALEU, it’s just where are you going to sit on the list of companies that get the next batch.”

In a statement last week, ARC Canada president and CEO Bill Labbe said the company is “working closely with suppliers of HALEU to secure the fuel supply for the commercial demonstration project at Point Lepreau.”

“The conversion, enrichment, and fabrication of the fuel will likely occur in the United States with options also being explored in the UK and France,” he said.

“We expect to release further information about the fuel strategy in coming months.”

The company did not respond to questions of whether it has considered alternative fuels.

In an interview, Holland said it is an issue that’s been flagged.

“Fuel is a factor,” he said. “You can build the greatest reactor in the world, but if you can’t fuel it, you’ve got a problem.

“So we have always been mindful of making sure fuel supply is there. That conversation has absolutely been taking place all along.”

The Higgs government has already spent $20 million on ARC’s technology.

A contract with the small modular nuclear reactor company saw the province pay out all of that money by July 1, 2022.

That contract, obtained by Brunswick News, also specifically called on ARC to “notify promptly of any circumstances that could result in significant delays to the development activities.”

And it put in place a project oversight committee consisting of senior officials from the provincial government, NB Power and ARC with broad-ranging powers to intervene in any major step taken along the way.

Holland said that committee remains in place providing updates.

“What I’ve been told that there are a number of things taking place to ensure that there’s a queue for North American enriched uranium and we’re in it,” Holland said.

“That’s what I’ve been told and told definitively.”

Holland said the U.S. has a “vested interest” in aiding Canada and its SMR technology because Canada has the uranium they’re going to need as well.

“There are people saying ‘hey, if Canada is going to be your large supplier we’re going to have to work out, quid pro quo, that we don’t get excluded,’” he said.

Holland maintained that “our toe is stuck in the door so we have an opportunity to be part of that supply chain.

“So we don’t get left out in the cold,” he said.

The Canadian Nuclear Association contends that the industry is working closely with government “to ensure that all of Canada’s reactors, including SMRs, have reliable and sustainable access to nuclear fuel.”

Christopher Gully, a spokesperson for the association, said Canada and the United States are “engaging directly on this issue at the highest levels.”

Canada is also working with like-minded allies at the G7 level through what’s called the Sapporo 5 initiative, intended to secure nuclear fuel supply for not only Canada and the United States, but also UK, France, and Japan.

“While we do not foresee the government choosing to produce enriched fuel here in Canada, we are confident that a North American nuclear fuel supply chain – with Canadian uranium and American enrichment expertise and technology – will provide the necessary fuel supply to power all reactors currently under development in the country,” Gully said.

Holland said he’s unaware of any talks to change the type of uranium ARC is using, although adding that “there always has been and always will be a lens towards the evolving nature of the fuel market.”

Sawyer said making a change to a different fuel means components will need to be redesigned.

“Obviously, you design a reactor for the type of fuel you’re going to use so there’s obviously some work to be done to realign the reactor core to the new type of fuel,” he said. “Is it easy? I’m not sure if it’s easy. There is some work to be done, there’s no doubt.”

Sawyer added that there’s two components to SMRs: the reactor design, construction and deployment, and then the fuel.

“Any delay on either one of those sides of the equation could cause a delay later on,” he said.