Stellaria
🇫🇷 Grenoble, FR · Founded 2023 · Active
Stellaria is a French reactor start-up founded in 2023 by five partners, three of them from the CEA, France's atomic energy and alternative energies commission. It is designing the Stellarium, a fast-neutron reactor in which the fuel is dissolved in molten salt, intended to run on depleted and reprocessed uranium, plutonium and minor actinides recovered from spent fuel. The CEA gives its output as 1,000 MW of heat or 500 MW of electricity. Stellaria raised €2 million in 2023 and received €10 million in public aid in 2024. According to the CEA it aims to finish a first prototype in 2029 and deploy a first reactor in 2035.
- Sector
- Fission
- Technology
- Molten salt reactor
- Role
- Reactor developer
Terms
- Molten salt reactor
- Fuel DISSOLVED in the salt, which in most designs is fuel carrier and coolant at once. Distinct from a salt-cooled reactor with solid fuel; the two are often confused. Moderator, where one is used at all, is a separate design choice from the salt: thermal-spectrum MSRs are typically graphite-moderated, fast-spectrum MSRs carry no moderator.
Designs
| Design | Developer | Approach | Electrical output per unit | Size class | Licensing stage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stellarium | Stellaria | Molten salt reactor | 110 MWe planned | Small modular reactor | No milestone recorded |