We are designing and building the next generation (Generation IV) of nuclear reactors: the lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) fuelled with MOX. They will contribute to climate change mitigation and global decarbonisation.
Our innovative reactors will provide the world with a safe and stable power source while reducing volumes of radioactive waste.
Our type of nuclear technology has recently been included within the perimeter of the EU Taxonomy of environmentally sustainable economic activities, by the EU Commission.
Our projects are based on a fast-paced timeline aiming to fully exploit nuclear fuel and eliminate the most dangerous nuclear waste produced by older generations of nuclear reactors.
We can use this waste as fuel through the most innovative and safest designs:
Our non-nuclear electrically-heated prototype will allow us to thoroughly test our solutions for the well-known challenges related to liquid metal and in particular lead.
This important work is being carried out in collaboration with ENEA, and the prototype will be built at the Brasimone site, Italy.
This will meet the commercial demand for small electric generating units. SMRs can be plant manufactured – reducing cost and accelerating the commissioning.
At the same time, we will directly invest in a MOX plant to fuel our reactors.
Our terrestrial waste-to-energy reactor: exploiting the capacity of LFR reactors to close the fuel cycle, it will be used to produce energy and, at the same time, using as fuel nuclear waste from existing nuclear plants, otherwise destined to a geological repository.
This design displays some of our 13 patents, including the amphora-shaped inner vessel.
All the previous steps and designs also serve a further goal:
to design and commercialise the ADS, a concept proposed by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia. This consists of a subcritical (not self-sustained) LFR coupled with a particle accelerator, enabling a thorium-based fuel cycle and the ultimate conditions for complete safety.
Our mid-term strategy is to establish MOX (Mixed Pu-U Oxides) fuel manufacturing in developed countries, for cost effective, cleaner, and virtually inexhaustible production of nuclear energy, using as fuel the existing waste from the current nuclear industry.
MOX fuel consists of:
Depleted uranium, a byproduct of the enrichment process of today’s reactors. Up until today there is no use for depleted uranium, indeed there is an associated disposal cost.
Plutonium, for years plutonium has been extracted from the spent nuclear fuel as it was considered an asset for future generation of fast nuclear reactors, like ours. The correct execution of this strategy will reduce proliferation risk and open the door to an even more competitive cost for our reactors, as we will completely avoid mining and relieve operators of the disposal cost.
Intense activity is underway to obtain relevant authorisations from all the stakeholders to execute on this strategy, and to evaluate strategic partnerships with the few key players in the field.
newcleo’s vision improves nuclear sustainability in multiple ways: recycling currently considered waste, avoiding mining activities which are often conducted in politically unstable countries and have significant environmental impact, boosting the energy independence of a nation and reducing volumes to be disposed in geological repositories.
