Babcock & Wilcox will supply TerraPower with engineering and fabrication support for TerraPower's Generation IV reactor, the companies announced Monday.
Backed by Bill Gates and other private investors, TerraPower formed in 2008 to commercialize a liquid sodium-cooled fast reactor that can run on depleted uranium and operate 60 years on a single load of fuel. A recently signed memorandum of understanding envisions B&W contributing fabrication of prototype components, in addition to design engineering, operations support, licensing support and testing.
“B&W’s valuable involvement with TerraPower includes work done through affiliate Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. for development of the TWR fuel supply chain,” TerraPower Senior Vice President Doug Adkisson said in a release. “This MOU with B&W makes it possible for us to tap the nuclear industry's excellence and keep American companies active in the international supply chain for advanced nuclear energy technologies.”
According to its website, TerraPower aims to build a 600 megawatt-electric demonstration reactor by 2022. In recent years, the firm has formed relationships with dozens of national laboratories, universities and nuclear-sector companies in the U.S. and abroad. Its investors have also sought partnerships for the project in China and other countries with existing breeder reactor projects.
The TerraPower TWR-P design stands apart for its "breed and burn" concept postulated in the late 1950s and validated using recent advances in computer modeling. Its core would contain a small amount of enriched uranium to start a chain reaction in a cylinder of depleted uranium. While depleted uranium does not contain enough U-235 to sustain fission, it can produce plutonium through neutron capture. That plutonium would then fission, producing energy and breeding fissile material consumed in a slow “wave” that makes its way through the core over many years.