ACU gets permit to build nation’s first molten salt university research reactor

The nonpower research reactor will use high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel dissolved in molten FLiBe salt (a mix of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride).

The NRC speaks: “This is the first research reactor project we’ve approved for construction in decades, and the staff successfully worked with ACU to resolve several technical issues with this novel design,” said Andrea Veil, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “Going forward, we’ll have inspectors on the ACU campus when construction gets started.”

After ACU submitted its application in August 2022, the NRC accepted the application and began its regulatory review in November 2022. May 2024 was the NRC’s original estimate for the issuance of a construction permit, but following a round of requests for additional information, the NRC informed ACU in June that the university and its partners could expect the commission to complete its review in September. The NRC issued its final environmental assessment for the site in March 2024, and issued the final safety evaluation together with the construction permit on September 16.

The permit sets the earliest possible date for construction completion as March 31, 2026, and the latest as December 31, 2029. Prior to beginning construction, ACU must meet its commitment to develop and implement a Degradation Management Program. Prior to operating the MSRR, ACU must apply for and receive an operating license.

ACU and Natura in partnership: In 2015, ACU founded its Nuclear Energy Experimental Testing (NEXT) Lab to perform research into molten salts and their uses in nuclear energy. Since then, it has attracted some partners, most notably Natura Resources, a private company that has provided substantial funding for ACU and its three university partners—Texas A&M University, the University of Texas, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Natura Resources welcomed the news of ACU’s construction permit yesterday.

Douglass Robison, founder and president of Natura Resources, is described on ACU’s NEXT Lab website as a third-generation oilman and energy expert. The site explains that “when Doug Robison first became acquainted with the molten salt research led by Dr. Rusty Towell (’90), he made a $3.2 million donation to NEXT Lab through his nonprofit Excelsior Foundation. Later, he formed Natura Resources LLC and committed to investing an additional $30.5 million in the project, with $21.5 million of that going to ACU and the remainder going to three other universities in a research consortium led by ACU and dubbed NEXTRA (NEXT Research Alliance).”

Natura Resources says it has an “iterative, milestone-based approach to advanced reactor development and deployment” that began in 2020 when the company “brought together ACU’s NEXT Lab with Texas A&M University, the University of Texas, and the Georgia Institute of Technology to form the Natura Resources Research Alliance.”

ACU president Phil Schubert said, “ACU is thrilled to have Natura as a partner as we work together to answer the world’s increased demand for reliable energy, medical isotopes, and clean water through the deployment of liquid-fueled molten salt reactors. With the NRC’s issuance of the construction permit, we are one step closer to making that a reality.”

Natura’s goal: Natura Resources has positioned itself to commercialize molten salt reactor technology following the successful operation of the research reactor. An ACU press release issued September 16 says “ACU’s molten salt research reactor (MSRR) will be the first deployment of the Natura MSR-1, a 1-megawatt thermal molten salt reactor system.”

Now that ACU has received a construction permit, the university says it “will continue working with Natura to submit an application for an operating license, while Natura will complete the detailed design of the MSR-1. ACU and Natura hope to submit the operating license application in the first half of 2025.”

According to Robison, “The NRC’s issuance of the construction permit for the Natura MSR-1 deployment at ACU shows that our technology can be licensed and de-risks the licensure of Natura’s 100-MWe systems.” He continued, “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.”

Next steps: “We appreciate the thorough reviews by the NRC staff,” said Ben Beasley, Natura Resources’ director of licensing. “This construction permit is the first step in the NRC’s two-step licensing process. It allows Natura and ACU to build and operate the MSRR without uranium. The next step is the operating license, which will authorize Natura and ACU to fuel the reactor and demonstrate the elegance of molten salt technology.”

Construction of the building that will house the research reactor—the Dillard Science and Engineering Research Center at ACU—was completed in August 2023. Now, Natura Resources expects Zachry Nuclear Engineering to complete the detailed engineering and design of the reactor in the first part of 2025.