US firm’s nuclear reactor to extract critical minerals, desaline oilfield wastewater

Natura Resources and NGL Energy have formed a strategic partnership to integrate Natura’s advanced 100-megawatt molten-salt nuclear reactor (MSR-100) with NGL’s large-scale water treatment operations in Texas’s Permian Basin. The collaboration aims to convert the vast volumes of "produced water"—a salty, oily byproduct of oil and gas extraction—into valuable resources by desalinating it for use in data centers, agriculture, and industry. This approach addresses the environmental and regulatory challenges of traditional produced water disposal methods, while generating clean electricity and utilizing waste heat from the nuclear reactors to power local grids and energy-intensive sectors like AI data centers. Natura’s Generation IV molten salt reactor technology operates at atmospheric pressure and high temperatures (over 600°C), enabling efficient thermal desalination and enhanced safety compared to conventional nuclear plants. The partnership also plans to extract critical minerals from the treated brine, potentially establishing a new domestic supply chain for battery materials. Natura is progressing toward