A New Brunswick company has come up with a new way to remove harmful radioactivity from nuclear fuel waste and transform it into an energy source.

Moltex Energy Canada of Saint John said it has proved its waste-to-stable-salt process works in removing 90 per cent of transuranic (those elements that have an atomic number higher than uranium and are radioactive) material in a 24-hour chemical procedure.

“We’ve done proof of concept, basically bench top-level tests of all the main components and novel aspects to make sure it works safely, economically,” Rory O’Sullivan, chief executive officer of Moltex, told Sustainable Biz Canada in an interview.

“We can extract out the valuable materials from that to make a new fuel that can go and power more reactors," he said. "At the moment, the used fuel is destined to be buried underground . . . What we’ve done is demonstrated a process that can extract those hazardous materials out of the used fuel.”

The breakthrough came after seven years of study, according to O’Sullivan.

“The concept of recycling fuel is not new. It’s been around for decades but it’s not economical. It’s very big, complex facilities that are the size of several hockey rinks and what we have done is developed a radically more efficient process that can be done in a third of a hockey rink, to give a comparison.”

Making sure the technology works

The novel technology went through some tough measures to ensure it works.

“These tests on the real used fuel are very expensive and hard to do because you can only do the tests in what’s called a hot cell. It’s a concrete box of metre-thick concrete all around, with a metre of lead glass, and you have remote manipulators who do the work."

The process involves a pre-treatment phase and then three more treatment phases over the 24-hour period.

Initially, pre-treatment strips the irradiated material with an oxidation-reduction-of-oxides process which reduces the particle size for subsequent treatments.

Then transuranic elements are separated from uranium and extracted into molten salt. During the following two stages, the material eventually becomes fuel for molten salt reactors in chloride or fluoride form, according to Moltex.

Most of the research was conducted at the company’s own uranium-licensed laboratory but the most recent testing was conducted at Canada Nuclear Laboratories at its Chalk River laboratories, in Chalk River, Ont., north of Ottawa.

“They’re the only facility that is licensed to handle used nuclear fuel,” O’Sullivan said.

Encouraging reaction to Moltex's breakthrough

Reaction to this announcement has been positive as the issue of nuclear waste is ongoing.

“In Canada, there is a safe plan to deal with used fuel. We’re proposing a complimentary improvement to reduce the volume that needs to be disposed of and nuclear proponents have always been frustrated that there isn’t a better solution to nuclear waste," he said.

"There’s really been a huge excitement that we finally might have cracked it.”

The process currently works only for a molten salt reactor but it can potentially be modified to work with other types of nuclear power plants, he said.

While the benefits seem obvious, such as “reducing the waste liability, reducing the volume of waste,” there are environmental and economic reasons to consider using the process, according to O’Sullivan.

“But probably the biggest one is from all of the used fuel in Canada. We can power about 8,000 megawatts of our reactors for 60 years and the fuel source for that is already sitting at the existing nuclear sites around Canada and so you don’t need to mine any new uranium. Everything is already here and why waste it?” he said.

Partnering with utilities, First Nations

So far, the company has partnered with a number of power utilities, as well as with other investors, but one group of people in New Brunswick have also jumped on board.

“The other feedback we’ve had has been very strong from Canadian First Nations, that there’s always been a desire to look after seven generations . . . The concept of recycling and reducing the toxicity and radioactivity on future generations has been very appealing, and we’ve had very positive reaction from the communities across the country,” O’Sullivan said.

Moltex has partnered with seven of 15 Indigenous communities in N.B. through the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council.

Moltex's building and expansion plans

The company is in the process of building a demonstration facility at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in Lepreau, N.B.

It also would like to expand into the U.S. but there is a “very challenging regulatory environment,” to contend with, as well as current political concerns that need to be addressed.

“We actually think a North American collaboration on this is going to be the best outcome and of course, there’s some volatility at the moment on that front politically of course, but that’s only a short-term blip. In the long term, Canada and the U.S. will continue to collaborate,” O’Sullivan said.

The future looks bright for the company and its technology but more capital investment is now needed to scale it up.

“The need for nuclear is not going away. Hydrogen needs nuclear. Regular energy needs nuclear. AI needs nuclear. The climate change carbon reduction needs nuclear, particularly in industrial heat sectors that are looking to decarbonize," O’Sullivan said. "Whatever happens to nuclear power, we are dealing with a nuclear waste legacy issue that’s not going away.”

“We want to be the cleanup guys to enable nuclear power for everybody else to do even more sustainably and economically.”