The Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (USREL) serves as a strategic development site for Natura Resources LLC as they advance the development of their commercial-stage liquid-fueled molten salt reactor (MSR). By leveraging USREL’s specialized, national lab-grade environment and advanced instrumentation, Natura is able to perform the high-precision testing required to bring next-generation nuclear technology to the commercial market.
Core Capabilities and Research Focus
- Fuel Salt Qualification: USREL plays a central role in measuring critical scientific properties of molten salts—including density, viscosity, and thermal conductivity. This research is conducted under strict nuclear-quality assurance standards (NQA-1) to generate the verified data required for regulatory qualification and reactor licensing.
- Medical Isotope Production: Because Natura’s liquid-fuel design inherently supports the extraction of valuable byproducts, USREL’s infrastructure is utilized to research large-scale medical isotope production, supporting life-saving advancements in healthcare alongside clean energy.
- Closed-Loop Fuel Operations: Looking toward the future, the laboratory is positioned to explore advanced fuel synthesis—the process of converting uranium metal to uranium fluoride—as well as salt recycling to enable sustainable, closed-loop fuel operations.
Through this collaboration, USREL provides the essential infrastructure, industrial partnership ecosystem, and regulatory-quality data needed to transition advanced molten salt technology from the laboratory to the commercial grid.