Texas based Natura Resources takes leadership position in US advanced nuclear reactor deployment

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Jun 18, 2024, 17:11 ET

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 30^thfor the deployment of the first Natura Resources reactor. LINK

Seen here is the reactor bay that awaits Natura Resources' molten salt reactor, pending final regulatory steps.

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 12^th 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.

SOURCE Natura Resources