Tractebel To Support HEXANA In Developing Its SMR
Tractebel (ENS Corporate Member) signed a new partnership to support the French start-up HEXANA in developing its design of a Small Modular Reactor (SMR).
HEXANA, a spin-off from CEA (ENS Corporate Member), aims to develop an SMR featuring a sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor, integrated with a high-temperature storage device.
A plant would include two of these reactors (400 MWt each) supplying a heat storage device. An adjoining conversion system will allow it to produce electricity on demand and flexibly, to compete with gas-fired power plants, supply heat directly to nearby energy-intensive industries, and so decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial sectors.
The start-up is one of the winners of the FRANCE 2030 programme, a plan for strategic investments in the industries and technologies of the future.
Tractebel will leverage its multidisciplinary nuclear expertise to define the conceptual design for civil engineering and utilities of nuclear island buildings, as well as the special nuclear handling systems for the maintenance of large components.
These studies will be incorporated into the Safety Option File (DOS) that HEXANA will submit to France’s Nuclear Safety Authority (ASNR – Autorité de sûreté nucléaire et de radioprotection) for licensing.
Read more on Tractebel SM Channels and HEXANA Press Release (in French).
