ABILENE,
Texas, June 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced last week that it expects to
complete the safety assessment and issue a construction permit by
September 30th for the
deployment of the first Natura Resources reactor. LINK
There are two things that we at Natura Resources focus on above
all others: EFFICIENCY and PERFORMANCE. In an
industry plagued by excessive spending and lack of performance,
Natura is moving at a pace the nuclear industry has not seen in
over 60 years. The upcoming issuance of the construction permit to
deploy the Natura MSR-1 system is another milestone that is
evidence of Natura's ability to PERFORM. Consider where we
have come from and what we have accomplished so far:
- 2019: DOE issues Programmatic Letter of Support
for fuel services.
- 2020: Natura is founded in response to the DOE's charge
to design and deploy a liquid-fueled molten salt reactor (MSR).
- 2020: Natura Resources Research Alliance of Abilene Christian University (ACU), the
Georgia Institute of Technology,
Texas A&M University and the
University of Texas at Austin is formed
to license and deploy the Natura MSR-1 system at ACU.
- March 2022: Groundbreaking takes
place on site of Natura MSR-1 deployment, the Science &
Engineering Research Center (SERC) at ACU.
- August 2022: Construction
Permit Application submitted to the NRC.
- July 2023: Detailed Design
Engineering of Natura MSR-1 system begins with Zachry Nuclear
Engineering.
- August 2023: SERC construction
is completed. In 17 months we built the only facility for
demonstrating an advanced reactor in the nation outside of a
national lab.
- September 30, 2024 (expected):
Completion of NRC safety assessment and construction permit
issuance.
"The environmental assessment and upcoming completion of the
safety evaluation for a construction permit are significant steps
forward in the first deployment of the Natura MSR-1 system," said
Natura Resources founder and president Doug
Robison. "This deployment at ACU will not only demonstrate
successful licensure of a liquid-fueled molten salt reactor but
will provide critical operational data that will help us meet the
world's growing energy needs."
In less than five years since our inception we are on track to
have the first NRC approved construction permit for a liquid-fueled
molten salt reactor, only the second NRC approved construction
permit for an advanced reactor of any kind, and detailed design of
the Natura MSR-1 system completed by Zachry Nuclear
Engineering.
Why does this matter? The steps that we are taking
with the Natura MSR-1 system are going to accomplish two primary
goals on our path to the deployment of commercial MSRs to meet the
world's energy needs.
- Reduce regulatory uncertainty/risk. With the
successful permitting of the Natura MSR-1 system we will have
demonstrated that we have a technology that can be licensed by the
NRC. The NRC is the world's gold-standard in licensing, and we
will have successfully navigated their licensing process.
- Operational data. The Natura MSR-1 deployment at
ACU is going to provide operational data that will allow us to
safely and efficiently design and deploy our commercial systems.
While other developers mine through data from the 1950s and 60s in
an attempt to develop their systems, we will have real-time
operational data to support commercial reactor development.
So what's next? We're already pushing forward with the
development of our small modular MSR system that will be fabricated
on an assembly line and shipped to site via truck or rail.
The regulatory engagement plan for this system has been submitted
to the NRC and we will soon begin raising capital to support the
next steps of engineering and design for this system.
And here's why this is all so vitally
important.
On June 12th Lieutenant
Governor Dan Patrick posted a tweet
about testimony given by ERCOT CEO Pablo
Vegas and others in the Senate Committee on Business &
Commerce where it was stated that within only six years, our
power grid needs will grow from about 85,000 to 150,000 megawatts
(85 to 150 GW). That is a 75% increase on our current
grid demand in Texas! LINK
If we're going to meet the growing energy needs not only in the
State of Texas, but in our country
and the world at large, we must begin deploying advanced nuclear
reactors. Natura is on the leading edge of advanced reactor
deployments. We're not here to make empty promises, we're here to
perform. Look at what we've done and look at how we continue to
perform.
For more information on Natura Resources please visit our
website at www.naturaresources.com.
For more of a quick look at what we're doing and why we're doing
it, take 3-minutes to watch this video,
https://www.naturaresources.com/natura-mission-video.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/texas-based-natura-resources-takes-leadership-position-in-us-advanced-nuclear-reactor-deployment-302176118.html
SOURCE Natura Resources