Molten Salt Reactors: Naarea and Thorizon Sign Agreement

Naarea and Thorizon have announced the signing of a strategic industrial partnership to advance the development of molten salt nuclear reactors, a promising technological sector that has seen few accomplishments.

On February 8, 2024, the two startups signed a strategic industrial partnership to “advance molten salt reactors.” Naarea, founded in Paris in 2020, offers a 40 MWe (80 MWth) reactor, and Thorizon, founded in 2022 in the Netherlands (with the French branch established in 2023), a 100 MWe (250 MWth) unit.

The two partners wish to join forces to pool resources for safety and security demonstrations and for chemical, industrial, and strategic knowledge; develop shared laboratories and testing centers; secure access to retired fuels; offer the market a range of complementary solutions with a common technological base; and increase political and public support for the technology.

A Network of Agreements in Formation

Naarea highlights in its press release that these agreements complement a series of partnerships recently concluded, notably the one between Naarea and Newcleo signed in January 2024. It concerned, among other things, access to spent fuel, financing of fuel cycle infrastructure, as well as the pooling of research and development platforms and access to computing tools for safety demonstrations.

Thorizon is part of the Mimosa Horizon-Europe consortium, led by Orano, which “deals with ways to optimize the strategy for recycling spent fuels in Europe using molten salt reactors.” The company also announced a partnership with the Belgian engineering subsidiary of Engie Tractebel. ■