The rural municipality of Viru-Nigula in Laane-Viru county is interested in getting the small nuclear reactor Fermi Energia is planning to build in Estonia.
Viru-Nigula mayor, Einar Vallbaum, said that they were very interested in the coming nuclear power station.
“We’re helping along as much as we can, because seeing this nuclear power station built would be important for Estonia,” Vallberg said.
The area was a candidate also some 12 years ago, when state-owned energy company Eesti Energia was looking into potentially building a nuclear power station. While back then the idea was to build a conventional reactor, the new project currently discussed and involving energy company Fermi Energia as well as British-Canadian company Moltex Energy aims at the construction of a molten salt reactor.
Estonia still generates most of its power from burning oil shale at Eesti Energia’s Narva blocks. This fossil fuel capacity will have been mostly retired by 2030, as blocks are getting older and taken off the grid without replacing them.
The road ahead certainly won’t be easy, as one of the possible locations of the power station in Viru-Nigula is currently a bird reserve. Alternative locations include the nearby city of Sillamae and its surrounding area.
Moltex is developing a molten salt reactor. This approach was first taken in the early stages of the Cold War, when the United States ran two programs investigating the possibility of a nuclear-powered strategic bomber.
Initial designs were shelved, and the world’s nuclear industries developed along the line of high-pressure reactors based on the nuclear nations’ experience with their atomic weapons programs. Interest in the molten salt reactor type resurged in the late 1990s, with several companies and at least two countries actively developing the technology at this time.
The molten salt reactor design has many advantages over the established pressurized types, including the virtual impossibility of a meltdown, a much lower risk of other accidents as it operates at atmospheric pressure, and the option to use existing nuclear waste as fuel. (ERR/Business World Magazine)
