Copenhagen Atomics

Copenhagen Atomics has invented the Onion Core® technology, enabling a compact reactor that can be mass-manufactured efficiently while requiring only a small amount of materials. This breakthrough is a game changer for nuclear energy.

Copenhagen Atomics has already built two prototype reactors based on the Onion Core® technology and is now developing its third reactor.

Removing the technology risk from the power plant owners. Nuclear power plant owners will buy the land, get the licenses, build the buildings, steam turbines and connection to the grid. They will hire the plant personal and sell the electricity. Copenhagen Atomics makes sure they have the best energy technology anywhere in the world.

Containerized molten salt reactors allows for mass manufacturing and assembly line production. No onsite reactor assembly is necessary, only installation. This enables us to bring low cost manufacturing to the nuclear industry.

By kickstarting our reactors on long-lived "waste" left in spent fuel we're able to convert it to fission products, which only needs to be stored for 300 years while rapidly scaling global energy production without the need for uranium enrichment.

There’s already enough mining of thorium today, that we can get all the thorium we need to power all of current civilization for the next thousand years. However, its true potential as an energy source can only be realized when used as a molten salt.

Copenhagen Atomics’ 5th generation portable molten salt loop with two leak-tight barriers, 18 m3/h capacity pump, 700 °C furnace, and online web data monitoring.

Copenhagen Atomics reactors extract fission products while the reactor is running.

Copenhagen Atomics breeder reactors will not generate spent nuclear fuel, like all the other uranium reactors out there. Instead, we generate fission products as waste stream, which only need to be stored above ground for 300 years. This is regardless of which Kickstarter fuel we use (LEU or TRU).

Copenhagen Atomics will supply the fuel salt. We do not rely on 3rd party fuel suppliers. But we buy LEU, TRU and thorium from an existing supply chain. Copenhagen Atomics already has agreements for the thorium supply chain but will need to increase the capacity of all the supply chains to reach our goals.

Copenhagen Atomics’ fuel salt technology ensures an independent fuel supply. We do not rely on third-party fuel suppliers but source LEU, TRU and thorium through existing supply chains. We already have agreements in place for the thorium supply chain and will continue expanding the capacity of all supply chains to support our long-term goals.

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Copenhagen Atomics was founded in 2014 by Thomas Jam Pedersen, Peter Szabo, Thomas Steenberg and Aslak Stubsgaard, all with a technical background and relation to Technical University of Denmark.

Copenhagen Atomics presents a new reactor design, with different physics than all other previous reactor designs, resulting in much lower energy price and less materials used.

Copenhagen Atomics will build the reactors and supply the fuel for an one time upfront cost of $50M plus $2M / year for each reactor unit, including the replacement of reactor modules every five years. Over a 50 year plant lifetime at a 90% capacity factor, this corresponds to approximately 9 USD/MWh for electricity paid to Copenhagen Atomics

Additionally, the waste left behind by the Copenhagen Atomics reactor only needs to be stored for 300 years above ground, vs. 100,000 years of deep geological storage for nuclear waste from traditional reactors.

The reactor type invented by Copenhagen Atomics is a thorium molten salt breeder reactor, which fits inside a custom built 40 foot shipping container and can be mass manufactured on assembly lines with an expected output of minimum 1 reactor per day (per assembly line).

We believe thorium energy is going to supply more than half of all energy to humans before the year 2100. This is how big this opportunity is.