Seaborg Technologies

Seaborg Technologies is a private Danish startup company working to develop and commercialize molten salt reactors.[1] Founded in 2015 and based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Seaborg Technologies emerged as a collaboration between a small team of physicists, chemists, and engineers with educational roots at the Niels Bohr Institute, CERN, ESS (European Spallation Source) and DTU (Technical University of Denmark) sharing a common vision of sustainable and cheap nuclear power.[2] Recently Seaborg Technologies and nuclear power (see also Energy in Denmark) have seen increased media interest in Denmark,[3] and the Danish government platform includes a statement about removing barriers to research into thorium-based technologies.[4] Seaborg Technologies is named after the American nuclear chemist and Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg.

Seaborg Technologies
TypePrivate company
IndustryNuclear Power
Founded2015
Headquarters
Copenhagen
,
Denmark
Products
Websitehttp://www.seaborg.co/

The Compact Molten Salt Reactor

The reactor designed by Seaborg Technologies is called the Compact Molten Salt Reactor, CMSR. The company claims that it is inherently safe, significantly smaller, better for the environment, and inexpensive even compared to fossil fuels.[5]

Conventional nuclear reactors have solid fuel rods that need constant cooling, typically using water under high pressure. In the CMSR, fuel is mixed in a liquid salt that acts as coolant. This ensures it can always be cooled and it cannot melt down or explode. It will simply shut down by itself in case of an emergency.

Unlike other thermal spectrum molten salt reactors the CMSR does not use graphite as a moderator. Instead it used molten Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) contained in pipes adjacent to and interlaced with pipes that contain the molten fuel salt. This enables a more compact design. It also allows the liquid moderator to be rapidly removed from the core as a fission control mechanism.

References
  1. References on molten salt reactor design,
  2. "Dansk reaktor brænder farligt atomaffald" (Danish). DR – originally published on http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/viden/. August 2015. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  3. References on public debate on nuclear power in Denmark.
  4. "Danish government platform 2016" (Danish) (p. 76). Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  5. "Seaborg Technologies". Seaborg. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
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