India's Tata group is exploring to deploy up to eight nuclear micro reactors in the US through a group company. The subsidiary of Tata Chemicals North America - Tata Chemicals Soda Ash Partners has signed a letter of intent with BWXT Advanced Technologies (BWXT) to explore the deployment of up to eight nuclear micro reactors.
Tata Chemicals North America is a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals Ltd.
With this LOI, both the companies agree to expand their collaboration. According to a statement, the collaboration will include the development of commercial terms and conditions to conditionally purchase BANR micro reactors from BWXT and establish the schedule and key milestones along the path to deploying them by the early 2030s, as well as jointly determining the techno-economic parameters necessary to turn conditional reactor purchase commitments into an energy purchase agreement.
Since September 2023, TCSAP and BWXT in collaboration have been looking at the feasibility of integrating BWXT's Advanced Nuclear Reactor (BANR) for electricity and industrial processing at TCSAP's Green River, Wyoming manufacturing site.
Once deployed, TCSAP said, the BANR microreactors would deliver on-demand electricity and process heat that is both carbon-free and resilient from external disruptions for one of the world's leading producers of high-quality soda ash.
Tata Chemicals North America sees nuclear power as an important energy source in its quest for a more secure and sustainable supply chain and in providing a low carbon footprint product.
