Photo Credit - EnergySolutions
If the Kewaunee Power Station were reinstated, it could use a different fuel to generate power.
EnergySolutions VP of Marketing Mark Walker explained to SeehaferNews.com that they would not just “restart” the old 1974-era reactor that provided energy from Kewaunee, but could also decide what type of nuclear power plant would be built.
Many experts in the Nuclear industry are pointing toward the Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR), developed by Terrestrial Energy in North Carolina.
It generates high-temperature heat for direct industrial use and for high-efficiency electricity generation.
It uses molten-salt fission technology, a Generation IV fission technology in which the salt serves as both coolant and fuel. Currently, nuclear power plants in the U.S. use conventional fission technology, with water coolant circulating through a highly pressurized system to cool solid fuel elements.
Terrestrial Energy also says on its website that nuclear reactors require a high-performance coolant for safe and efficient commercial operation, which its IMSR provides.
Operating at 44% thermal efficiency, an IMSR plant can generate 392 megawatts of electricity from 884 megawatts of thermal reactor power.
The IMSR is also classified as a Small Modular Reactor, meaning it’s smaller and easier to build than traditional plants.
EnergySolutions and the WEC Group have officially submitted a formal Notice of Intent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to pursue new nuclear power generation at the shuttered Kewaunee Power Station.
However, the plant is still in the decommissioning phase, with 3-5 years left to complete.
The energy groups also want to expand the power station’s boundary to accommodate a new, large-scale nuclear facility, with potential for data center development, aiming for a 2038 operational date to meet rising data center demand.
