Saint John energy company says it hit milestone in recycling nuclear waste for energy

Nipun Tiwari · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 08, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: March 8

 A Saint John-based atomic engineering institution says it has deed a milestone successful its purpose to trim discarded coming from atomic vigor by turning that discarded into usable energy.

The institution — Moltex Clean Energy — is processing a process to extract usable vigor from atomic discarded successful what it calls the discarded to stable-salt process. 

This process takes the "high-level waste" from existing atomic substance that comes from atomic generating plants and creates caller substance retired of it, said institution CEO Rory O'Sullivan connected Information Morning Saint John.

The institution announced occurrence this week successful extracting what O'Sullivan called "long-lived hazardous materials" retired of atomic waste.

"Nuclear discarded has been 1 of the large impediments of atomic powerfulness due to the fact that of that agelong radioactivity of the waste," O'Sullivan said.

And portion determination are existing processes to negociate atomic waste, that waste isn't mostly good accepted by the public, "whereas the conception of recycling the waste, and getting much vigor retired of it, and reducing the magnitude of long-lived hazardous radioactive products is precise appealing," helium said. 

The institution is aiming to usage the process to powerfulness a 300 megawatt tiny modular reactor at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station. Moltex expects that SMR to beryllium operational by the aboriginal 2030s.

The process — according to information released by Moltex — takes atomic substance and separates it. What starts retired arsenic a "bundle of fuel," which is 100 per cent "high-level" waste, becomes 98 per cent "intermediate" waste by removing what's called "fuel salt" and different products. 

The high-level discarded accounts for astir 1 per cent of the full waste, according to the company.

This extracted "stable salt" would beryllium utilized to make vigor and the leftover "intermediate waste" has a footprint 3 times little than the archetypal substance bundle, Moltex said. 

Reduced liability for aboriginal generations

Warren Mabee, manager of energy and biology argumentation astatine Queen's University, said the exertion holds large promise. 

"This is 1 of the astir important things I deliberation that the atomic manufacture has to fig retired — however to woody with discarded that comes from these plants," Mabee said.

The task is funded by the Federal Strategic Innovation Fund and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and has partnerships with nationalist stakeholders, specified arsenic reactor supplier Candu Energy.