Clean Core Thorium Energy (Clean Core) announced a further collaboration with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) on their ANEEL™ fuel technology. Notably, the CNL has approved a Clean Core submitted proposal, “Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life (ANEEL) CNSC Licensing Verification and Validation,” as a proposed project managed under the Canadian Nuclear Research Initiative (CNRI) Program. During the subsequent detailed discussion phase of the program, CNL will work with Clean Core to further establish scope and timeline.
Clean Core is commercializing a patented fuel, ANEEL™ fuel, made of thorium and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), designed for existing pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR) and CANDU reactors. The fuel retains the same external dimensions as the currently used natural uranium (NU) fuel and leverages a high burnup once-through fuel cycle. The ANEEL™ fuel derives several advantages to the currently used NU low burnup fuel including improved safety and operational characteristics, reduced nuclear waste volumes and proliferation resistance. Clean Core completed initial design studies, and recently, announced the successful conclusion of the Phase 1 Pre-licensing Vendor Design Review process with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
Clean Core understands that successfully completed design studies are an essential part of the licensing process. This involves the verification and validation of the computer codes and analytical models employed in the design and safety analysis. The collaboration between CNL and Clean Core has the potential to enable accelerated evaluation of advanced solutions for heavy-water reactors, which could critically enable their improved economic operation.
“Clean Core recognizes this as an opportunity of accelerating their ANEEL™ fuel program by leveraging the existing domain expertise at CNL and the development and assessment of various fuel, physics and thermohydraulic models,” says Mehul Shah, CEO and Founder of Clean Core. “This collaboration will meaningfully accelerate the deployment of the ANEEL™ fuel, which can impact the Canadian and global nuclear industries.”
In addition, Clean Core signs a Strategic Partnership Project Agreement with the US DOE and begins their irradiation testing and qualification in the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Labs in April 2024 to achieve planned burnup targets of up to 60 GWd/T. Clean Core has been in actively partnering and engaging with key industry players including regulators, utilities, and suppliers to achieve a successful commercialization of the ANEEL™ fuel by 2026.
