US to deploy molten salt reactors to turn wastewater into freshwater

[Pelican Press 0]

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US to deploy molten salt reactors to turn wastewater into freshwater

A novel nuclear reactor currently under construction at the Abilene Christian University (ACU) in Texas will help generate carbon-free energy while also desalinating water, solving two problems at once, a press release said. The nuclear reactor is being built by Natura Resources, a company specializing in developing small modular reactors.

With the world looking for new ways to power its economy, nuclear power is poised for a comeback. Wind and solar power work great at their peak but face intermittency issues, leading to no power supply when demand is the highest.

On the other hand, nuclear power can offer a reliable source of carbon-free energy. However, the massive scale of building reactors means that projects get delayed, and cost overruns are common. These shortcomings are being addressed through innovations such as small modular reactors (SMR) that can be up to a tenth of the size of a conventional nuclear reactor and can be built in factories.

Each module of an SMR can produce up to 300 MWe (megawatt equivalent) of energy and has advanced safety features.

Natura’s molten salt reactor

Founded in 2020, Abilene, Texas-based Natura Resources has quickly become a governmentally recognized advanced nuclear reactor developer. In 2023, the company built the Science and Engineering Research Center (SERC) at ACU, the first advanced reactor research facility outside a national lab in the US.

The company uses liquid-fueled molten salt reactor (LF-MSR) technology, allowing molten salts to act as fuel and a coolant. According to its website, a mixture of lithium fluoride (LiF) and beryllium fluoride (BeF2) salts or thorium fluoride (ThF4) salts can be used, which allows the reactor to operate at temperatures higher than solid-fuel reactors.

Since the fuel also works as a coolant, it is removed continuously from the reactor for fissile material to be replaced. This process also makes MSR reactors meltdown safe.

A primary heat removal system in the reactor design also ensures that heat generated during the fission process is removed through a cooling loop. Here, it can be repurposed for other applications. In the case of Natura’s upcoming reactor in Texas, it will be used to desalinate water.

Solving water woes

As the most populous state in South Central US, Texas has a growing demand for clean water and clean energy. While oil and gas wells produce water as a byproduct during extraction, they do not serve any direct purpose. Purification by spending energy from fossil fuels is more polluting, but

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now offer a scalable solution that can help desalinate water.

Natura Resources conducted a feasibility study at the Texas Produced Water Consortium, based at Texas Tech University. With the MSR operating at 1112 Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius), up to 250 megawatts (MW) of clean energy is generated, which can be used for desalination.

“There are great opportunities for beneficial uses of treated produced water in Texas such as rangeland restoration, crop irrigation and streamflow augmentation, among others, especially in the Permian Basin,” said Doug Robison, founder and president of Natura to Midland Reporter-Telegram (MRT). “Thermal desalination processes need high-reliability clean power, and the Gen-4 molten salt reactor (MSR) technology is a prime example.”

The reactor is currently under construction and is expected to be online by 2026/27. Once the demonstrator is completed, the team will begin work on integrating systems to start desalinating water.

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