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The Canadian government this week, backing up campaign pledge, announced $206 million in support of clean technology initiatives, including a $18.5 million in grants for next-generation nuclear power companies Terrestrial Energy and General Fusion.

The awards, doled out by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), included a $12.75 million package for General Fusion and $5.7 million for Terrestrial Energy. They were part of a 36-project effort announced by the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development director Navdeep Bains.

The grant, said General Fusion, is staged across a number of milestones that requires matching funds equal to twice the amount of the grants, indicating a $38.25 million investment for the company. Terrestrial Energy, which recently announced its engagement with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission involving a pre-licensing review for its Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) design, said its award would help it step up pre-commercial activities for IMSR project development, which will conclude with construction of an electrically-heated non-nuclear mock-ups that will “test and demonstrate many aspects of IMSR operation. The mock-up will allow for data collection "over a wide range of operating scenarios," the company said.

Terrestrial Energy said it was on a 30-month time line on the data collection designed to validate safety analysis computer codes. “The results will support Terrestrial Energy's regulatory engagement and key aspects of the IMSR Safety Case, which the company touts as “simple, natural and passive cooling mechanisms.”

General Fusion (GF), which was established in 2002, said it had raised more than $100 million from a global syndicate of investors. The $12.75 million grant is the second substantial award from SDTC, the first, awarded in 2009, amounted to $13.9 million.

GF said it was working with McGill University's Shock Wave Physics Group and Toronto-based engineering firm Hatch, which will focus on design of the full-scale energy demonstration system that is the next step to the company's mission to develop its Magnetized Target Fusion technology on an industrial scale. GF said Hatch brings “expertise in power plant design, engineering, material sciences and technology commercialization to the consortium.”

GF boasts a wide base of industrial support that includes Chrysalix Energy, Venture Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Cenovus Energy, Growthworks, Braemar Energy Ventures, BDC, Entrepreneurs Fund, SET Ventures, Sustainable Development Technology Canada and NRC-IRAP.

The SDTC grants are part of a wider Canadian government effort to promote energy technology designed to promote Canadian companies as the world shifts from a fossil-fuel based energy generation to a low-carbon-based future. SDTC grant recipients in this year's funding pool include CO2 Solutions Inc., Comet Biorefining Inc., Cellufuel Inc., Enerkem Alberta Biofuels LP, ASE Smart Energy Inc., ARDA Power Inc., Alliance Magnesium Inc., and Teck Resources Ltd.