GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and TerraPower have announced a collaboration to pursue a Public Private Partnership to design and construct the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
The two companies recently submitted a joint response to an Expression of Interest issued by the Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) on behalf of the DOE which seeks stakeholders interested in forming a partnership for a cost-sharing arrangement to design and construct the VTR utilizing sodium fast reactor technology.
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy established the VTR program to introduce fast neutron spectrum technology that does not currently exist in the U.S. and to support accelerated development of nuclear fuels and materials for advanced reactors.
In November 2018, BEA selected GEH and its PRISM technology to support the VTR program. Since then GEH has been actively engaged in the development of the VTR conceptual design. TerraPower has supported the VTR program by making enhancements to the VTR’s design and has invested ten years of sodium technology development into its traveling wave reactor.
