RICHMOND, Texas (Covering Katy News) — A Texas company building an advanced nuclear demonstration reactor says the technology it is developing could eventually help address three major needs: producing reliable electricity, providing high-temperature heat to desalinate water and creating medical isotopes used in cancer treatment.
Doug Robison, founder and executive chairman of Abilene-based Natura Resources, said Texas could become a national center for advanced nuclear energy, with Houston potentially playing a significant role because of its energy expertise, manufacturing capabilities, medical industry and growing demand for electricity.
Robison was the keynote speaker Friday at the Fort Bend Regional Partnership's annual Infrastructure Conference at Safari Texas Ranch in Richmond.
His appearance coincided with a major milestone for Natura. More than 2 metric tons of specialized molten salt arrived Friday at the company's reactor facility at Abilene Christian University for its MSR-1 demonstration reactor.
“When we say we're building a reactor, we're building a reactor,” Robison told the Fort Bend audience.
More than electricity
Natura is developing small modular advanced nuclear reactors using liquid fuel and molten salt technology. Its commercial technology is intended to produce electricity and high-temperature heat that could be used for desalination and industrial processes. It could also produce medical isotopes.
Robison said those possibilities helped persuade him to become involved after four decades in the oil and gas industry.
“We produce high process heat, plus electricity that can desalinate water, and a third of the world doesn't have safe drinking water,” Robison said. “And we also can harvest medical isotopes that can cure cancer.”
“If somebody's saying, ‘We have technology that can lift people out of poverty, provide safe drinking water, and help treat, image, and cure cancer,’ you gotta get out of your chair for that, which is what I did.”
Medical isotopes are used in cancer imaging and treatment. Some have relatively short half-lives, meaning they lose radioactivity relatively quickly. Producing them near major medical centers can reduce transportation time and losses from radioactive decay, potentially making Houston's large medical center particularly relevant.
Natura Resources
A rendering of the MSR-1 demonstration facility at Abilene Christian University shows the below-ground reactor bay, where Natura Resources is building its advanced nuclear demonstration reactor.
Salt from America's first molten salt experiment
The salt delivered Friday has a history stretching back more than 60 years.
Known as FLiBe, a mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride, the material was previously used as coolant in the federal government's Molten Salt Reactor Experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
The experiment operated from 1965 to 1969, logging more than 13,000 hours of operation. Natura says it provided a foundation for the advanced nuclear technology the company is developing today.
The FLiBe is not nuclear fuel. It is coolant salt that transfers heat through the reactor system. Using molten salt rather than water for cooling allows the system to operate at high temperatures while remaining at relatively low pressure.
“This is the salt that is our coolant for our reactor,” Robison said. “It has been in storage at Oak Ridge National Laboratory since the 1960s.”
“Receiving this salt from the DOE is a handoff between generations of American innovation,” said Jordan Robison, CEO of Natura Resources and son of Doug Robison. “The MSRE showed what molten salt technology could achieve. We're carrying that legacy forward and turning it into a commercial reality that will deliver reliable energy, clean water, and medical isotopes to the world.”
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued Abilene Christian University a construction permit for the reactor in September 2024. The demonstration reactor is intended to generate research and operating data for future commercial advanced nuclear reactors.
Power and water for a growing Texas
Natura says it has secured more than $120 million in private funding, while the state of Texas has committed another $120 million to the project.
Doug Robison began funding research at Abilene Christian University in 2017. Natura later invested $30 million in research involving ACU, the University of Texas, Texas A&M University and Georgia Tech.
Robison said the system operates at more than 600 degrees Celsius but at approximately atmospheric pressure.
“We're not a high-pressure reactor like a light water reactor like Fukushima,” Robison said. “By using salt as a coolant instead of water, we avoid that pressure," he told the audience in Richmond.
He said Texas needs additional reliable electricity as demand grows from artificial intelligence, data centers and other industries.
“Energy is the mother of all grids,” Robison said. “Your transportation industry, your medical industry, your farming, communications, all infrastructure is based upon your energy infrastructure.”
Advanced nuclear technology could also help address Texas' growing demand for water.
Natura is working with the Texas Produced Water Consortium at Texas Tech University on using high-temperature heat from advanced nuclear reactors to desalinate highly saline water produced during oil and gas operations in the Permian Basin.
Robison said researchers believe as much as half of that water could potentially be converted into usable water rather than disposed of through injection wells. He said researchers believe it potentially could be treated to potable standards — clean enough to meet drinking-water standards.
“You can drill saltwater wells and produce saltwater that you desal into fresh water, and that's manufacturing fresh water,” Robison said.
Covering Katy News
Natura Resources demonstration facility is located on the campus of Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas.
Houston could become an advanced nuclear hub
Robison said Houston already has many of the pieces necessary to support an advanced nuclear industry, including energy expertise, engineering and manufacturing capabilities, large industrial customers and a major medical sector.
Natura has established a Houston manufacturing connection through NOV, formerly known as National Oilwell Varco. The Houston-based energy technology and equipment company has an agreement with Natura as it works toward commercial production of its advanced nuclear reactors.
The relationship is central to Natura's plan to manufacture standardized small modular reactors at scale instead of treating every reactor as a one-of-a-kind construction project.
“What NOV gives us, they're located here in Houston, is when somebody says, ‘Can you build a reactor?’ Yes, we can,” Robison said.
Robison said Natura's goal is to eventually manufacture standardized reactors in factories, allowing the company to produce them at scale rather than building each one as a custom project.
Building each reactor the same way could also simplify the regulatory process. Once a design has been thoroughly reviewed, regulators would already be familiar with how it works and many of the questions surrounding it. Sticking with an approved design means the reactors could be manufactured at scale without having to revisit the same design questions every time another plant is built.
The reactors could eventually be located near industrial facilities, data centers and other large electricity users, potentially reducing the need for long-distance transmission lines.
“If you put the power where you need it, you don't have to build those transmission lines,” Robison said.
Natura has not announced a commercial reactor in the Houston region, but Robison said Houston has an opportunity to become an industry leader as advanced nuclear technology moves toward commercial deployment.
“I think Houston is an obvious place to be an industry leader,” he said. “You've got the infrastructure here. You need the power. You've got the medical industry.”
For now, the proving ground remains in Abilene.
“Our job is to de-risk this technology to the point of where the municipality, the state, and industry can say, ‘That's real. Let's start building,’” Robison said.