In this fray are two entrepreneurs with an updated design for a molten salt fast reactor (MSFR). They are Carl Perez and Ed Pheil, joint owners of Elysium Technologies USA.

Price is one of the big selling points, according to Perez and Pheil. Their 1,200 MWe reactor won’t be pressurized, but it will operate at high temperatures, cutting back dramatically on the balance of plant costs like a containment structure and fuel.

Additionally, and possibly the deciding selling factor, because it will be a fast reactor with a molten fuel, it will be able to use nuclear waste as a fuel and burn it up over time. A fast reactor has an unslowed neutron flux and needs no moderator, like the water in light water reactors.

According to Pheil and Perez, these are the principal selling points of their molten chloride salt fast reactor (MCSFR):

· Fueled with nuclear waste from weapons and other reactors

· Air cooling

· Process heat

· No downtime to fuel

· Lower reactor, fuel, and balance of plant costs

· Doesn’t have to be near a large water source

· A potential source of hydrogen generation at reasonable cost

Initial funding of just $7 million came from visionary angel investors. Now, Perez told me, Elysium’s next round of funding will enable the engineering and licensing of a small, 10MWt demonstration plant, the size determined by Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules.

Design work on neutronics and fuel production has been carried out at Argonne National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory with GAIN (Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear) funding from the DOE