On July 17, Stellaria, a French startup born out of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Schneider Electric, raised €23 million to build a very promising new kind of small modular nuclear reactor (SMR). Funding came from U.S.-based At One Ventures and France’s Supernova Invest. They were joined by Stellaria’s existing backers: CEA Investissement, Schneider Electric, Exergon, and Technip Energies. This new capital injection adds to an initial grant Stellaria obtained as a winner of the “Innovative Reactors” call for projects under the France 2030 plan.
With a capacity of 540 MW (thermal), with 250 MWe (electricity generation), this SMR, called “the Stellarium,” will be a fourth-generation “fast neutron molten salt design.” If this reactor seems so innovative, it is because it is based not on one, but on two innovative technologies. The device will be not only a molten salt reactor (MSR)—which means that the nuclear fuel used will be in liquid form—but also a fast neutron reactor (FNR)—in which the neutrons that cause nuclear fission are not slowed down.
These technologies allow, among other things, reduced production of high-level nuclear waste and the use as fuel of elements that conventional power plants cannot exploit. Using this type of device could make it possible to re-value waste from more conventional pressurized water reactors (PWR) and to exploit new elements, such as thorium, which is much more abundant in the Earth’s crust than uranium.
