In Canada, the gamble of fourth generation nuclear power

“We will turn on the first fourth generation nuclear fission reactor in 2026 in Canada, in Chalk River, and the second on the Urbana-Champaign university campus in Illinois. Then we will start producing one reactor a month. We will be the forerunners everywhere in the world of reactors. fourth-generation nuclear power plants that will provide safe and zero-emission energy “. Riccardo DeSalvo he is considered “a brilliant inventor” by his own physical colleagues, who have known him since he worked on elementary particles at CERN in Geneva and at the Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University in the USA. Then the attempt to return to Italy which led him to deal with gravitational waves. “But Italy didn’t want me” and he had to continue his work on gravitational waves at the California Institute of Technology. “Finally, those of Facebook looked for me, for which I directed two laboratories, one of which in Benevento, and registered 22 patents”, he says.

Lately, electrocution from nuclear fission. “It’s an interest born in family dinners,” explains DeSalvo. “My partner-in-law Francesco Venneri, also a physicist with a past at the Los Alamos Laboratories, founded a company years ago to create fourth generation reactors. I was initially skeptical and at every meeting I subjected him to a barrage of technical questions , convinced that I would have found the weak point of the project. I didn’t succeed “. Today Riccardo DeSalvo is senior advisor of Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, the Venneri-based company, and is promoting it in Italy, at institutions but also among private companies that need a lot of energy at more competitive prices than gas.

Professor DeSalvo, we have been talking about fourth generation nuclear power for years. Skeptics say: show us a prototype that works and then we’ll talk about it again.
“In 2026 they will see working not a prototype but a real reactor. The following year a second one will start on the university campus of Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. And not long after we will begin to install them in Europe as well, we are already starting the procedures with large European companies ”

In this race to the fourth generation you are not alone, there are for example the projects of Bill Gates or Stefano Buono’s Newcleo. Why do you consider yourselves the trailblazers?
“Because we will start much earlier. The most optimistic start date for the other projects is 2035, we will be ready in four years. It must be said that ours are small reactors, 50MW thermal at most, while to my knowledge all the other reactors of fourth generation are machines of hundreds of megawatts born to power power plants. And yet our project has the strength to be intrinsically safe. Even if we did everything possible to do damage, it would be impossible to cause a nuclear accident “.

How did you achieve this “absolute” security?
“Thanks to the materials and the design of the reactor. Two key points: all materials are ceramic unable to fuse and then the intrinsic characteristic of Uranium 238 to absorb more neutrons if the temperature rises. The fissile material, uranium oxide, it is produced in the form of one millimeter diameter beads sealed in a double layer of graphite and silicon carbide, an indestructible material, hard as diamond. Hundreds of these beads are then placed in cartridges of 2 cm in diameter and 5 in height. , also made of silicon carbide. More silicon carbide is deposited all around with the result that a single and indestructible block is obtained “.

With what advantages?
“There can be no melting of the core. The first part of the reactor that could melt is the uranium oxide, but it would have to exceed 2300 degrees, which cannot inherently happen because as the temperature increases, the increased absorption of neutrons in the Uranium 238 quenches the reaction. Even in the event of an anomaly, the maximum temperature of these reactors remains about 1000 degrees below the damage threshold. Meltdown is physically impossible. The other advantage of silicon carbide beads is the storage of the consumed fuels In traditional reactors to recover spent fuel, zirconium steel rods must be chemically dissolved to separate the fission compounds and then a ceramization process must be carried out before the waste is sent to the depots. A difficult and expensive process. Here it is enough to recover the ceramic cylinders of silicon carbide, a material that lasts well over the 200 thousand years necessary for radioactivity activity of plutonium falls below the levels of that of natural uranium. Finally, there is the impossibility of separating the plutonium contained in the silicon carbide beads which prevents them from being used to make atomic bombs “.

Speaking of weapons, nuclear power plants have become a target in Ukraine. What would happen if a missile landed on your reactor?
“Our reactors will not be easy targets because they are installed in a trench of 25 square meters by six meters deep, and they are very small: the core is three meters high by two in diameter. It can be transported by truck. But even if if a reactor were centered in full, the fissile material would remain inside the indestructible cylinders of silicon carbide: just collect them within the radius of the explosion. There will be no dispersion of radioactivity in the soil or in the air “.

And the water? In some incidents it was the reactor cooling water that was contaminated with radioactivity.
“In our reactors the cooling will be by helium. Eliminating the water means avoiding that in the event of an excessive rise in temperature (over 600-700 degrees) there can be explosions due to excessive steam pressure, and that hydrogen is generated, an explosive gas in contact with oxygen “.

What will the temperatures be at stake?
“We engineer the reactors to work at 700 degrees. As the temperature rises, they stop producing significant power. And when they reach over 1100 degrees, they shut down altogether. So even if one were criminal enough to turn off the cooling, take off the bars, do all that shouldn’t be done, the reactor would only go to 1100 degrees. But, as mentioned, the first thing that can melt is 2300, so there’s more than a thousand degrees of safety margin. And that’s what makes ours intrinsically ultra safe reactors “.

Who will be the buyers of these reactors?
“The project was born to solve a problem in Canada: in the Arctic Circle region there are mines that need energy. So far they have been powered by long caravans of tankers carrying fossil fuels. The idea was to make them autonomous with small reactors. But the energy crisis has made us understand that this solution can also be interesting for many companies behind their homes. Some time ago, with gas at 20 euros per megawatt hour, it would not have been competitive to offer our fission energy at 30 euros. per megawatt hour … but now many are asking us for information. In recent days I have met Italian entrepreneurs who work in the paper, ceramic and cement sectors … For them, having energy at 30 euros per megawatt hour would be a lifesaver. In addition, with the second refill of fuel, after 7-20 years of uninterrupted operation, the cost of the megawatt hour drops to 10 euros “.

Who will manage the reactors once they are installed in the companies?
“The Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation. Given their design and small size, they require little maintenance. We have” regional “control rooms, controlled by local personnel trained by us to monitor groups of 10-20 reactors in the same area. .. who chess in the province of Rome, for example “.

Can’t imagine a use for the production of electricity to be fed into the grid?
“Sure. Reactors produce heat and with that heat you can do whatever you want: for industrial processing, as in the case of ceramics, or to boil water and run a turbine to produce electricity. 10 series of our small 45 MW thermal reactors to have the equivalent of a 150-200 megawatt power plant.You could even use existing power plants and replace coal or gas burners to run turbines with our reactors. But perhaps the ideal use of such small reactors is to supply process heat directly to energy-intensive firms, using the excess heat for cogeneration of electricity, and perhaps for district heating of neighboring houses. “

Have you talked about all this with Italian politics?
“I had discussions with Minister Cingolani and with Senator Manfredi of the new government majority. I will be back in December when the executive takes office and will be operational”.

The Italians have a great distrust of nuclear power. How do you plan to win it?
“I can only reiterate that we will produce energy in an ultra-safe way and without emitting CO₂. If you want to protect the landscape, for example the green hills around my Siena, and don’t want to cover them with photovoltaic panels, it may be worth putting these reactors. But I’m optimistic, because I see that young people, even in Italy, are starting to have a very different approach to nuclear power “.

What gives you the certainty that in 2026 everything will go as your formulas say?
“There are two innovations in recent years that have allowed us to take a leap forward. The first is 3D printing, which allows you to make cartridges in silicon carbide. The second is software that makes simulations more and more reliable. And I assure you that simulating the flight of a new plane is much more complex than the behavior of a fourth generation nuclear reactor: in short, we know how things will go “.

But the first, the one that will debut in Canada in just over three years, is it still an algorithm or is there something concrete?
“At Chalk River they are completing theenvironmental assessment for the site and work will begin next year on the first reactor. Usnc has already begun manufacturing the fuel at its factories in Tennessee and Utah. I repeat, starting from 2027 we will be ready to produce more than ten reactors a year, but to make many it will be necessary to build factories in Europe too “.