French nuclear start-up Hexana and Norway’s Norsk Kjernkraft have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore joint opportunities for deployment of advanced nuclear reactors in Norway. The collaboration brings together Hexana’s advanced modular reactors (AMRs) and Generation IV system designs with Norsk Kjernkraft’s understanding of Norway’s regulatory landscape, industrial base and energy market. The letter of intent envisages future cooperation to help achieve Norway’s industrial decarbonisation goals.
Hexana, spun out the Alternative Energies & Atomic Energy Commission (CEA – Commissariat à l’énergie Atomique et aux énergies Alternatives) in March 2023, is looking to design a fast neutron and sodium heat transfer reactor, incorporating a high temperature storage device to deliver heat up to 500ºC in addition to electricity. Hexana also aims to help close the fuel cycle by using reprocessed used fuel in its reactors. Norsk Kjernkraft will assist Hexana in identifying suitable locations, market opportunities and building relationships with key industrial and institutional players.
“This MOU marks a meaningful step in our shared ambition to deliver carbon-free, scalable and sovereign energy supply to major industrial players,” said Sylvain Nizou, CEO & co-founder of Hexana. “By joining forces with Norwegian nuclear power, we are building a bridge between cutting-edge innovation and practical implementation – unlocking the full potential of next-generation reactors to deliver clean, safe and high-temperature energy to Norway’s most critical industries.”
“France has long been a global leader in nuclear power technology, and Hexana is at the forefront of this tradition,” said Norsk Kjernkraft CEO Jonny Hesthammer. “Their approach to high-temperature reactors and heat storage fits perfectly with the needs of Norwegian industry.… Electrification alone is not enough – decarbonising the industry requires process heat, and Hexana delivers just that.”
Hexana says it has the means to finalise the preliminary design of its product in collaboration with its many French and European partners. “The RNR Sodium technology, whose feasibility has already been demonstrated with the Phoenix, Superphénix and ASTRID projects, is thus relaunched in this energy platform project combining an innovative reactor composed of two modules of 400MWth of power each and an energy storage system. With enhanced financial visibility and proven technology, Hexana confirms the market prospects for its product by 2035.
However, while research on fast reactors took place in the 1960s and 1970s in the US and Europe, things began to change in the late 1970s as concerns about scarce uranium resources waned and public opinion became increasingly hostile in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the USA and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. By the early 1990s the US, the UK and Germany had closed down their programmes.
France continued with its Phenix and Superphénix projects for a few more years, finally closing Superphénix in 1998 and Phenix in 2009, Subsequently, in 2019, France also cancelled the Generation IV ASTRID sodium-cooled fast reactor demonstrator design project. Although interest is now reviving in Europe and the USA both through collaborative projects and government support for private company initiatives, it remains at the early design phase and is probably decades away from implementation.
