Washington (Platts)--10Sep2010/546 am EDT/946 GMT

Hyperion Power Generation has agreed to build a prototype mini-nuclear reactor at a US Department of Energy small modular reactor demonstration complex, officials said Thursday. The company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Savannah River National Laboratory Thursday to build the first demonstration reactor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Hyperion is developing a 25-MW fast reactor that uses uranium nitride fuel and lead bismuth eutectic coolant. The parties aim to build an operational prototype by 2017 or 2018, said Mike Nevetta of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, which operates the Savannah River Site. He also said Thursday that the demo reactor will not connect to the grid but will produce electricity for internal use on site. Constructing the Hyperion prototype will cost $50 million, which will largely come from private sources, said Deborah Blackwell, Hyperion vice president of licensing and public affairs. She said Thursday that she is "confident" the company will secure the funding but declined to give more details. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions is talking with five or six other companies about building prototypes at the complex "in which manufacturers of small reactors can come and prove their technologies," said Nevetta. He added that all the demo designs will use "plutonium, high-enriched uranium and spent fuel," which means light water models will be excluded. --Yanmei Xie, yanmei_xie@platts.com Similar stories appear in Nucleonics Week See more information at http://www.platts.com/Products/nucleonicsweek/