BWXT’s BANR selected for Canadian project

The BWX Technologies Advanced Nuclear Reactor (BANR) has been selected for a power plant project in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, the company announced on Monday.

This project-which will progress through a partnership with Prodigy Clean Energy and the Pabineau and Eel River Bar First Nations-will mark two significant milestones for BANR: its first commercial deployment and its first international deployment.

The context: BWXT describes BANR as a modular, factory-fabricated, high-temperature gas reactor that is both compact and transportable. The reactor is designed to produce 75 MWt and is fueled with 19.75 percent high-assay, low enriched uranium formed into TRISO particles.

BWXT got an initial boost for BANR in 2020, when it was selected for $106.6 million in risk reduction funding through the Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. (ARDP is perhaps most associated with its support of TerraPower's Natrium and X-energy's Xe-100 reactors. However, the program is actually split into three groups-the third is better known as ARC-20.)

The most recent tailwind for BANR came when it was selected for the Army's Janus Program. BANR was chosen specifically to be sited at Kentucky's Fort Campbell. Notably, at the time of its selection, BWXT said that, for Janus, "a 20-megawatt electric version of BANR will be deployed." It is not clear whether the company intends to eventually offer other versions or sizes of the reactor, or if scaling is intended to come solely from deploying multiple units.

Project background: On September 1, Prodigy Clean Energy announced its proposal to "deploy an up to 50 MWe full-scale Prodigy transportable nuclear power plant (TNPP) within the traditional territory of the Pabineau and Eel River Bar First Nations" in the village of Belledune, New Brunswick.

At the time, Prodigy added that this TNPP would be First Nations-owned and would serve as a pilot project "creating the commercial blueprint to mass deploy a TNPP fleet across Canada's North and global export markets." The early 2030s are targeted for operation, and the Government of New Brunswick signed a letter of intent to offtake the electricity generated by the plant.

The TNPP itself is not a power generation facility; rather, it is a factory-built, transportable civil structure that needs to be paired with a reactor technology. Prodigy hopes the approach will reduce construction costs and timelines for reactor projects-among other benefits.

The news: On October 5, BWXT announced that BANR has been selected to be paired with the first deployment of Prodigy's TNPP. In this latest announcement, BWXT described the reactor as "intended to produce 75 megawatts thermal, or 22 MWe." Kinetrics, a subsidiary of BWXT, will also be involved in the project.

Two BANR units are planned for the Belledune site, BWXT said, offering "up to 50 megawatts electric," adding that BWXT and Prodigy are currently "working toward a definitive agreement for cooperative project development, engineering, licensing, supply chain integration, financing, and deployment of BANR-TNPPs. The companies will target commercial, industrial, and defense energy projects globally for future applications."

In terms of licensing, BANR appears to still have a long road ahead of it. In 2022, BWXT submitted a regulatory engagement plan to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for BANR, though at this time, the reactor employed a slightly different, 50-MWt design. Since then, the company has not hit any major NRC licensing milestones. As for licensing progress with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, there are no publicly available records of engagement at this writing.

Quotable: John MacQuarrie, BWXT president of commercial operations, said of this new partnership, "By joining forces with Prodigy and integrating BANR with Prodigy's transportable platform design, we are truly expanding BWXT's horizons for future customers while reinforcing Canada's role at the forefront of innovative, deployable advanced nuclear energy solutions."