ARC Clean Energy Canada is partnering with Hatch, an engineering, procurement, construction management and strategic services firm, to deploy advanced small Modular reactor (SMR) technology in New Brunswick by the end of the century.
ARC's ARC-100 is a 100 MW sodium cooled fast reactor based on proven technology developed for experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR II) sodium cooled fast Reactor, which has operated successfully for 30 years at the U.S. government's Argonne National Laboratory. The partnership agreement between ARC Canada and Hatch marks an important milestone in the deployment of the ARC-100 program, the company said.
"Leveraging the proven technology of the EBR-II, ARC Canada's technology is positioned as an integral part of the adoption of SMR to transform the energy market with economically competitive and environmentally responsible energy technology solutions," said Robert Francki, Managing director of global Energy at Hatch.
Hatch will use its engineering skills and capabilities to design ARC Canada's power plants in a fully digital format, with an emphasis on modular design to maximize plant production and scalability and minimize site construction time. Hatch also played a key role in integrating ARC Canada's advanced technology for harnessing high-quality process heat, including technology to optimize clean hydrogen and ammonia production, the companies said.
Hatch plans to expand its operations in St. John's and Fredericton, New Brunswick, in the coming months to support ARC Canada.
Arc-100 is one of two fourth-generation advanced SMRS to be developed in New Brunswick, with a fully operational unit at the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant by 2029, according to the joint STRATEGIC Plan for SMR deployment developed earlier this year by the governments of Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Alberta. Moltex Energy aims to have a used fuel recovery system and a stabilized salt reactor up and running at Point Lepreau by the early 2030s.
The New Brunswick unit constitutes the second "stream" of the strategic plan: the first stream is the grid-scale 300 MWe SMR to be built by 2028 at the Darlington Nuclear Power Station in Ontario, followed by the Saskatchewan unit, which lists GE-Hitachi's BWRX-300 SMR as the preferred technology.