Image: Natrium
Nuclear reactor company Natrium, which is backed by Bill Gates' Terrapower, has received a US$80m Department of Energy grant to build a demonstration reactor by the mid 2020s. The 345MWe reactor can power 225,000 homes and uses molten salt as an energy storage and transfer system, which is safer than pressurised water and removes the need for a large amount of concrete shielding. This storage system offers a capacity much larger than any grid scale batteries which means any surge demand caused by a dip in renewable sources can be marshalled by scaling the reactor up to 500MWe for 5.5 hours using the molten salt storage. Additionally, the underground nuclear reactor is power by High-Assay, Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU), which can produced by processing the nuclear waste of traditional uclear power plants.
