ARC teams up with Hatch for New Brunswick SMR deployment

ARC's ARC-100 is a 100 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor based on proven technology developed at the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR II) sodium-cooled fast-reactor, which operated successfully at the US government's Argonne National Laboratory for thirty years. The teaming agreement between ARC Canada and Hatch marks a significant milestone in the plan to deploy the ARC-100, the company said.

"Leveraging the proven technology of EBR-II, the ARC Canada technology is positioned to be an integral part of the adoption of SMRs needed to transform the energy market with an economically competitive and environmentally responsible energy technology solution," Hatch's Global Managing Director of Energy Robert Francki said.

Hatch will use its engineering technology and capabilities to design ARC Canada's power plants in a fully digital format, with a focus on modular design to maximise factory production and scalability, minimising on-site construction time. Hatch is also playing a key role in the integration of ARC Canada's advanced technology for heavy industry using high-quality process heat which includes the optimisation of the technology for clean hydrogen and ammonia production, the companies said.

Hatch plans to expand its presence at Saint John and Fredericton in New Brunswick in the coming months to support ARC Canada.

The ARC-100 is one of two fourth-generation, advanced SMRs to be developed in New Brunswick under a joint strategic plan for SMR deployment set out earlier this year by the provincial governments of Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Alberta, with a fully operational unit at the Point Lepreau nuclear site by 2029. Moltex Energy is aiming to have both a used fuel recovery system and Stable Salt Reactor in operation by the early 2030s, also at Point Lepreau.

The New Brunswick units form the second "stream" of the strategic plan: the first stream is a grid-scale 300 MWe SMR to be constructed at the Darlington nuclear site in Ontario by 2028, followed by units in Saskatchewan, for which GE-Hitachi's BWRX-300 SMR has been selected as the preferred technology.