The Union of Concerned Scientists claimed that the review of the construction permit application of the experimental sodium-cooled fast nuclear reactor was originally scheduled to be completed in August 2026.
Scientists in the U.S. have raised alarm over the expedited safety approval to construct a $10 billion, 345-megawatt experimental sodium-cooled fast nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming.The Natrium reactor was designed by TerraPower, a company co-founded by billionaire Bill Gates.
The Union of Concerned Scientists claimed that the review of the construction permit application, which was submitted in March 2024, was originally scheduled to be completed in August 2026. Political pressure from both Congress and the White HouseHowever, as the result of political pressure from both Congress and the White House, NRC staff curtailed their review and issued a safety evaluation nine months early, conforming to the 18-month review timeline mandated by President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14300, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.“The NRC’s rush to complete the Kemmerer plant’s safety evaluation to meet the recklessly abbreviated schedule dictated by President Trump represents a complete abandonment of its obligation to protect public health, safety and the environment from catastrophic nuclear power plant accidents or terrorist attacks,” said Dr. Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists.“The only way the staff could finish its review on such a short timeline is by sweeping serious unresolved safety issues under the rug or deferring consideration of them until TerraPower applies for an operating license, at which point it may be too late to correct any problems. Make no mistake, this type of reactor has major safety flaws compared to conventional nuclear reactors that comprise the operating fleet.”Liquid sodium coolant can catch fireLyman claimed that the facility’s liquid sodium coolant can catch fire, and the reactor has inherent instabilities that could lead to a rapid and uncontrolled increase in power, causing damage to the reactor’s hot and highly radioactive nuclear fuel.On December 1, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission stated that its staff has completed its final safety evaluation for the application submitted by TerraPower, on behalf of its subsidiary US SFR Owner, to build Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1 in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The evaluation concludes there are no safety aspects that would preclude issuing the construction permit. “We’ve finished our technical work on the Kemmerer review a month ahead of our already accelerated schedule, as we aim to make licensing decisions for new, advanced reactors in no more than 18 months,” said Jeremy Groom, acting director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “We thank TerraPower for promptly addressing the agency’s questions to ensure safety and enable the NRC to efficiently process the application.”However, Lyman highlighted that the NRC staff has assented to a design that lacks a physical containment structure to reduce the release of radioactive materials into the environment if a core melt occurs. TerraPower argues that the reactor has a so-called ‘functional’ containment that eliminates the need for a real containment structure. But the NRC staff plainly states that it ‘did not come to a final determination of the adequacy and acceptability of functional containment performance due to the preliminary nature of the design and analysis.
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