The Norwegian Thorium Initiative

Oystein Asphjell, CEO

October 2011

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

This document is the exclusive property of Thor Energy AS

Thor Energy AS is a part of the SCATEC-group:

Climate neutral energy Advanced materials • Titanium

• Nano carbon

• Rare Earth Elements

Alpha Ventus

• Solar

• Thorium

• Wind

Early phase projects

Advanced

materials Upstream

Renewable and climate neutral energies

Downstream Solar energy

History

Established

• Norsk Titanium – 2004

• NorSun – 2005

• Thor Energy – 2006

• Scatec Solar – 2007

• Scatec Adventure – 2007

• NorWind – 2007

• OceanWind – 2008

• Scatec Power – 2008

• Scatec Sunrise – 2009

• SCATEC established in 1987 by Alf Bjørseth (100%)

• PhotoCure established in 1997 (Oslo Exchange)

• SCATEC established solar energy successes which merged as Renewable Energy Corp (REC) in 2000, went public in 2006, trading at Oslo Exchange

• ScanWafer (1994), ScanCell (1998), ScanModule (1998), SolEnergy (1999), SiTech (2004)

World electricity demand

~doubling from 2005 to 2030

Source: World Outlook 2008 (Energy Information Agency)

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30

35

1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030

Trill

ion

K

ilow

atth

ou

rs

Year

Total

OECD

Non-OECD

Growth

2005-2030

93%

157%

36%

Nuclear, renewable and CCS only realistic

sustainable alternatives

Source: World Outlook 2008 (Energy Information Agency)

Renewable

Coal

Petroleum

Natural Gas

Solar

(0.05%)

Wind (1.3%)

Hydro

Geothermal Biomass

Nuclear

Nuclear

CCS potential

Global shares of electricity generation technologies

Large scale commercial nuclear power plant deployment…

Main obstacles:

- Public opinion

- Safety

- Proliferation concerns

- Handling of waste –legacy &

production

- Financing

- Feedstock supply

(Cost of natural Uranium)

Reactors under construction

Reactors planned

Reactors proposed

Reactors in operation

Over 200 new reactors in planning + replacement of existing 440

Uranium: Supply & Demand

Outlook

Fen Minerals Thor Energy

Norwegian

Separation Technology

(NST)

Thor Corporation - overview

Develops IPR for ThPu-fuel for current LWRs and a unique fuel-bundle design

Holds the mining rights for the FEN deposit – which contains Rare Earth Elements and Thorium

Develops IPR for new separation technology and IPR for new Rare Earth Elements business concept

Strictly Confidential

Thor Corporation

Thorium Fuel Cycle Feasibility Study Completed

15 man-years, multi-MUSD, cooperation w utility VATTENFALL

Topics: 1. Th mining, fuel fabrication and commercial market

2. Proliferation and safeguards (Dr. Bruno Pellaud)

3. Th-history & Selection of technologies & fuel design

4. Th-fuel in the reactor

5. Spent fuel management and economy

6. Licensing & approval (Dr. Raj Shegal)

7. Environmental & life cycle assessment

Conclusions: • No technical showstoppers identified

• Can be introduced in exisiting licensing framework

• Potential for higher burn-ups, improved economics

• Will stabilize fuel prices by introducing alternative to Uranium

• Will enable significant reduction of Plutonium inventories

• Higher proliferation resistance than the Uranium cycle

• More stabile waste-form

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U238

U235

U238

FP

MA

Pu

LWR

RgPu

U238

U238

FP

MA

Pu

LWR

RgPu

Th232

Th232

FP

MA

Pu

U233

LWR

RgPu

U238

U238

FP

MA

Pu

FBR

U233

Th232

Th232

FP

U233

A-LWR

or?

A near- and long term alternative fuel cycle

Th-Pu advantages over MOX:

-No new Pu & MA produced

-Fissile U233 multiple recycleable in LWRs

-Potential for longer cycles, better economy

-Building a U233 mine

Th-U233 cycle advantages over U-Pu-FBR:

-Based on LWR technology and excisiting infrastructure

-Economically & technically feasible

-ZERO prod of long lived Pu+MA

-Unlimited resource of Th

UOX-cycle

MOX-cycle

ThPu-cycle Th-U233-cycle

U-Pu-cycle

recycleable closed, sustainable

Present industry focus: The Plutonium Cycle

The Thorium Cycle

Thorium as a nuclear fuel • Th-232 is abundant in the crust of the earth

• Thorium is being produced every day as by-product from

REE-mining

• There is no nuclear future without man-made fissile

material and reprocessing...

• Phase 1: In todays nuclear power plants:

– To burn exisiting Pu- stockpiles

– To improve proliferation resistance

– To produce less waste with no new Plutonium

– To improve safety & economy

– Building a U233-”mine”

• Phase 2: In tomorrows ”advanced Light Water Reactors”:

– No feedstock limitations / ”closed cycle”

– ZERO long lived waste produced (<700yrs)

– Waste volume reduced by 95%

– Extremely proliferation resistant

Thorium has potential to reinforce a nuclear renaissance

• Advantageous thorium properties will drive the introduction of

thorium-plutonium fuel:

Category Drivers

Countries with large Th resources (USA, India, China, etc)

• Prospects of energy independence

Politically sensitive countries (Sweden, Germany, etc)

• Public opinion

• Change the nature of the debate

• Increase support for new nuclear

Pu countries (UK, France, Germany, India, Japan, etc + WgPu

USA, Russia)

• Most effective means for Pu disposition

• Retaining energy value

• Future option to recycle U233

Non-nuclear countries (UAE, Turkey, Poland, Saud Arabia, Norway, etc)

• Easier, more acceptable introduction of nuclear

• Reduced proliferation risks

Stockpile SNF (USA, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Slovakia, Brazil etc)

• Future opportunities to extract energy value and

minimise need for permanent repository

MOX-countries (France, Japan, UK, Russia, Germany, etc)

• Already licensed – easy shift to improved MOX cycle

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

This document is the exclusive property of Thor Energy AS

Thor Energy’s key fuel development activities:

• Unique, patentable software tools, unique for Th

• Needed for licensing & operations

• Coop. w Los Alamos National Labs & CRIEPI

• Benchmarking with the irradiation campaign

Validated computation tools

• Unique RgPu-Th BWR bundle design - patentable

• In-house software & competence

• Chalmers University, Sweden

• MIT / Prof. Schwageraus

• Advanced simulations of high conversion U233-cycles in ”RBWR”

Advanced bundle design

Future closed cycles

Thorium-Plutonium Fuel Irradiation Campaign 0

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The International Thorium Consortium

Thor Energy & The International Thorium Consortium

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

This document is the exclusive property of Thor Energy AS

• 5-year Thorium fuel test program initiated

• 2-year Feasibility Study together with nuclear utility Vattenfall completed

• 2-year detail fuel design completed

• Completed design of unique Thorium test program in the Halden test reactor in Norway

• Fuel & test rig in production, loading into reactor in Q3 2012

• International Consortium of utilities, industry, R&D-organizations participating in this first step towards commercial use of Thorium.

• The ”Halden Reactor Project” in

Norway

• 50 yrs operation in advanced

fuel testing

• Operated by IFE, funded by

OECD and Norwegian

Government

• Instrumental in introduction of

MOX fuel into Japan

T2

T1

S61

10

S53

S30 S35 S47 S15

504 S39 S26 16 E06 17 DO4 S65

S60 31 S33 647 32 654 S49 33 S28

515 648 22 E01 E02 23 D01D02

552 S23 21 S45 S38 11 638 603 D10 S36616

642 30 641 S75 S57 D11 12 604 S17 34 S50

35 S52 640 20 602ECCS 557 25 S32 597 24

S63 39 626 548 15 590 628 S34 E04 645 D09

S54 S51 29 S22 630 14 503 E08 26 E05 S81

S48 S42 S44 28 617 639 27 644 E07 S62 S58

S82 S64 38 S40 636 37 637 D03 36 S21

633 S55 19 S76 S18 18 595 625

13 651 652 S46 S78 D08 S79

S73 S83

S31

D05 610

S56

S77

S27 S84

S80 S59

D06

E03 C04

S37

D07 C03

Experiment Objective

…. to yield data that can be used to demonstrate the safe,

long-term performance of thorium-plutonium oxide fuels for

LWRs, and that this information can support the planning

and approval of an LTR/A irradiation for such a fuel…..

Regulator & Operator Audience, eg

...& not purely academic

Calibration valve for power calibration of test assembly

Inlet turbine assembly for power calibration of test assembly

Fuel rod thermocouple Test fuel rod, active section (Orange)

Neutron detectors vanadium Fuel stack elongation detector for measuring densification / swelling of fuel Fuel rod thermocouple

Fuel rod pressure transducer

Outlet turbine for power calibration of test assembly outlet steam holes for coolant Extension tube

Stainless steel shield plug

Top seal assembly, sealing against the reactor top lid

Key aspects:

- Realistic Pu-content

- Pellet mfg to industry std

- Extensive instrumentation

- Online measurements

- Regulatory focus

Behaviours to Characterize

• Temperature & Thermal Property Changes ―temperature, conductivity decrease, expansion, heat capacity

• Fission Gas Release ―amount, onset and composition

• Mechanical Interactions ―densification, swelling

• Chemical Interactions ―SCC, oxygen movement

Pellet properties evolve as fuel burns – the most important changes to know about are:

expect later onset for ThO2, more I, Xe. Less released?

less creep but more swelling for ThO2 – characterize re solid/gas FPs

O-FP behaviour different in ThO2

I yield higher (released?)

― ultimately, will cladding integrity be challenged?

Consortium-status, October 2011:

• Project owner:

– Thor Energy AS

• Key-partners / in-kind partners:

– IFE/Halden Research Reactor, Norway (rig-mfg,

irradiation, ref pellet mfg)

– Chalk River Labs – or – NNL (pellet-mfg)

– Paul Scherrer Institute (”PSI”), Switzerland (PIE-analysis)

– Norwegian Research Council (finance)

– Rhodia (France)

• Consortium partners:

– Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel (USA, Sweden)

– Fortum (Finland)

– 3 more LOIs signed – work in progress

Consortium goals:

• Manage, execute, fund and share the Halden Thorium

Irradiation experiment

• Equal rights to all results

• The consortium will serve as a steering group and make

decisions before, during and after the experiment

• To be a collective voice for Thorium advocacy towards

governments, industry, etc

• To jointly interact with other ongoing Thorium-experiments, i.e.

USA (DOE, LANL, etc), EU (SNETP, OMICO, etc), IAEA, India,

Weinberg Foundation, etc

• A forum to exchange and share Thorium-information; old & new

• ….and more

Consortium modes of operation:

• One person from each member entity is in the

Steering Group

• Steering Group meetings two times a year during first

phase, one time a year during irradiation

• To receive data, analyse results and guide the

experiment

• Quarterly data-reports / newsletter to be distributed

• Option to include R&D Org/Universities in one funded

membership

• Workshops and other options

Cost, financing & timing: • Thor Energy & IFE has specified, designed and engineered the experiment during 2008-2010

• Budget period for 2011-2015, 5 year duration. Main components:

• Pellet mfg & transport

• Irradiation

• Rig mfg, PIE, approvals, analysis, design & Adm

• Financing

• Thor Energy AS: 2 MEUR

• Norwegian Research Council: 2,5 MEUR

• Partners: 2 MEUR (+ 2-3 partners in progress)

• In-kind contributions (IFE, PSI, +)

Time for Thorium! During the coming 10 years:

Decisions regarding almost 300 new-builds worldwide to be taken

– Near term benefits of Th-Pu-cycle as a supplement to Uranium

– Security of supply, Proliferation, Waste-characteristics

Strategies on Spent Fuel management and storage must be determined

– Reprocess or deposit?

The debate over future nuclear technology must come to a conclusion

– Gen 4 programs “on hold” – can we afford not to hedge our bets for the nuclear future?

A need for nuclear to meet new political priorities

– Safety

– Energy independence

– Diversification of fuel source

– Pu disposition

– Waste handling

– Non proliferation

– Public opinion

Sept2010: Japanese consortium approaches government

to fund Thorium-research.

Feb2011: Application for EU FP7 funding headed by

AREVA

Aug2011: White paper by AREVA on Th-LWR use to

support sustainability

Thor Energy – Status 2011

• Coordinating the ”International Thorium Consortium” & the

Th-Pu Irradiation Campaign in the OECD/IFE Halden

Reactor.

• Developing & protecting fuel-IPR (pellet- and bundle-

design) & modelling tools to commercialise Th-based fuel

product for LWRs

• Monitoring & influencing national policies on nuclear &

Thorium

• Cooperation contracts signed: – IFE / Halden Reactor Project, Norway

– Los Alamos National Labs, USA

– MIT, Boston / Prof Eugene Schwageraus, USA

– Chalmers University, Sweden

– University of Tokyo / CRIEPI / Prof Kinoshita, Japan

– SCK-CEN, Belgium / LWR-DEPUTY

– Westinghouse

– FORTUM

Staff sample:

Dr. Hans Blix – BoD Former Director General of IAEA

Klara I. Björk – M.Sc. Awarded ”Lilla polhemspriset”

for best M.Sc. thesis in Sweden 2008

Dr. Julian Kelly – CTO Served 3 years at IAEA

5 years at ANSTO

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

This document is the exclusive property of Thor Energy AS