JAEA, the UK’s NNL Conclude Memorandum on HTGC Demonstration Reactor

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On September 9, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) signed a collaboration memorandum on the UK HTGR Demonstration Reactor Programme (Phase B). Under the memorandum, the parties will cooperate in R&D, the creation of nuclear supply chains, and the fostering of human resources toward the introduction of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) in both Japan and the UK.

The signing ceremony was attended by NISHIMURA Yasutoshi, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), who was visiting the UK, and Claire COUTINHO, Secretary of State for the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

To achieve carbon neutrality, the UK government has selected light water reactors (LWRs) for power generation and HTGRs in the non-power sector. In the fall of 2022, it started the HTGR Demonstration Reactor Programme, which is to be carried out in three phases: Phase A (pre-FEED, completed in February 2023), Phase B (basic designing, to be completed in 2025), and Phase C (permission, construction, and operation of an HTGR in the early 2030s).

In July 2023, DESNZ announced that a joint NNL-JAEA team had been selected as one of the project entities to implement Phase B of the reactor project. DESNZ also announced the beginning of a program to develop fuel for the demonstration HTGR. JAEA and NNL will also collaborate on the development of fuel fabrication technology in the UK.

In Japan, JAEA has successfully developed the High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR, 30MWt; restarted in July 2021). Its fuel fabrication technology—the core of the HTTR—is world-class domestic technology developed by Japan. For example, domestic manufacturers produce structural metals able to withstand the world’s highest outlet temperature of 950℃.

From now on, JAEA will collaborate with NNL to demonstrate HTGR technology both internationally and domestically, while also proceeding with social implementation in the UK, and will also reflect the results in HTGR demonstration projects in Japan.