Insider Brief
- TerraPower has submitted a letter of intent to the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to enter the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process, marking the first step toward deploying its Natrium reactor technology internationally.
- The Natrium system features a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with molten salt energy storage capable of boosting output to 500 MWe for over five hours, enabling integration with renewables and supporting decarbonization goals.
- TerraPower will leverage regulatory progress made in the U.S., including pre-application meetings, construction permit submissions, and recent ground-breaking in Wyoming, to support UK deployment timelines.
PRESS RELEASE – TerraPower, a nuclear innovation company, announced the submittal of a letter to the United Kingdom’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) that formally establishes the company’s intention to enter the UK Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process. This is the first step in efforts to deploy the Natrium technology in an international market.
“I am incredibly excited to begin of the process of licensing the Natrium technology in the UK,” said Chris Levesque, TerraPower President and CEO. “TerraPower is committed to deploying Natrium units globally and has been in active discussions in the UK for years. There is immense interest and opportunity for the United States and United Kingdom to cooperate on deploying advanced nuclear plants over the coming decade.”
The UK’s GDA process will build on TerraPower’s successful regulatory endeavors and allow for the company to establish deployment timelines for Natrium sites in the country. TerraPower’s regulatory milestones with its first Natrium plant, currently being developed in the United States, will be used as the basis of its GDA application. These efforts include:
- Robust pre-application meetings with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC),
- Successful submission and acceptance of the construction permit application (CPA) to the NRC,
- Over a years’ worth of review with the NRC on the company’s CPA and Topical Report Submittals, with the NRC recently announcing they are ahead of schedule on the review, and
- The successful award of a state-level construction permit from the State of Wyoming; where the first Natrium project is being built.
The Natrium technology features a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt-based energy storage system. The storage technology can boost the system’s output to 500 MWe for more than five and a half hours when needed. This innovative addition allows a Natrium plant to integrate seamlessly with renewable resources and leads to faster, more cost-effective decarbonization of the electric grid while producing dispatchable carbon-free energy. TerraPower broke ground on the first Natrium project in 2024.
As the UK government and energy providers strategize on how to best meet growing energy demand, innovative solutions like TerraPower’s Natrium technology with baseload power plus gigawatt-scale energy storage will be needed to achieve both a decarbonized and a reliable electric grid.
1The Natrium reactor is a TerraPower and GE-Hitachi technology
