GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and ARC Nuclear Announce Steps to Further Collaboration to Commercialize Advanced Small Modular Reactor

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and Advanced Reactor Concepts LLC (ARC Nuclear) today announced steps to advance their collaboration to develop and license the ARC-100 advanced small modular reactor (aSMR).

Through a newly-signed Development Agreement, GEH intends to license intellectual property associated with its PRISM advanced reactor design to ARC Nuclear. GEH has also agreed to provide to ARC Nuclear access to nuclear infrastructure programs related to quality, safety culture, training, processes, procedures and tools. In addition, GEH will make an in-kind contribution to ARC Nuclear through its agreement to provide engineering and design expertise.

“Our work to date with the GEH team has validated our expectation of the synergy of combining ARC Nuclear’s senior engineers — with their deep sodium fast reactor operational and design experience as key members of EBR-II prototype program — with GEH’s next generation of nuclear engineers and designers with their proven competence in modern nuclear design,” said Don Wolf, Chairman and CEO, ARC Nuclear. “We are clearly seeing how the power of this engineering collaboration and GEH’s infrastructure can give us a leap forward in reducing both time to market and development costs.”

“This new agreement recognizes that GEH and ARC Nuclear each have significant experience, investment and intellectual property in sodium fast reactor technology derived from Argonne National Laboratory’s successful EBR-II reactor which operated for more than 30 years at Idaho Falls, Idaho,” said Jon Ball, Executive Vice President, Nuclear Plant Projects, GEH. “At GEH, we are excited to see how this complementary collaboration will allow us to further accelerate commercialization of this technology with ARC Nuclear.”

The companies announced a collaboration in March 2017 to progress the ARC-100 design for global power generation with initial deployment in Canada. GEH and ARC Nuclear are working to commence a  preliminary regulatory review of the ARC-100 by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission through its Vendor Design Review process. At the same time, a joint GEH-ARC Nuclear engineering team is working to advance the ARC-100 design.

GEH and ARC Nuclear have agreed to re-examine their relationship upon completion of the Canadian Vendor Design Review and give consideration to focus for the ARC-100 beyond Canada.

About GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy

Based in Wilmington, N.C., GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is a world-leading provider of advanced reactors and nuclear services. Established in 2007, GEH is a global nuclear alliance created by GE and Hitachi to serve the global nuclear industry. The nuclear alliance executes a single, strategic vision to create a broader portfolio of solutions, expanding its capabilities for new reactor and service opportunities. The alliance offers customers around the world the technological leadership required to effectively enhance reactor performance, power output and safety. Follow GEH on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Advanced Reactor Concepts LLC (ARC)

Founded in 2006, Advanced Reactor Concepts, LLC. (ARC Nuclear) is a privately held Delaware company formed with many of the pioneers who played key roles in the EBR-II program and are today regarded as leading authorities in small fast reactor technology. ARC Nuclear’s mission is to commercialize the ARC-100 and produce safe, economically competitive, carbon-free energy for the global energy market, with a design that can also offer a viable solution to the problem of nuclear waste.