Corrosion issues in molten salt reactor (MSR) systems
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Molten salt reactor
Partitioning and transmutation is expected to be a promising option to extend the possibilities of nuclear energy and give a good solution for the problem of high level radwaste. Several liquid-fueled reactor concepts or accelerator driven subcritical systems (ADS) were proposed as transmutors. Many of these consider fluoride based molten salts as the liquid fuel and coolant medium. The thermalhydraulic behavior of these systems is expected to be fundamentally different than the behavior of widely used water-cooled reactors with solid fuel. Considering large flow domains three-dimensional thermalhydraulic analysis seems to be applicable. Since the fuel is the coolant medium as well, one can expect a stronger coupling between reactor physics and thermalhydraulics, too. In the present paper the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for three-dimensional thermalhydraulics simulations of molten salt reactor concepts is introduced. First a homogenous single region molten salt reactor concept is studied and optimized. In this model the heat carrier/fuel salt is circulated through the core by external pumps. The nominal thermal output is 2500 MW. Another single region reactor concept is introduced as well. This concept has internal heat exchangers in the flow domain and the molten salt is circulated by natural convection. In the paper the results of the CFD calculations with these concepts are presented. In the further work our objective is to investigate the thermalhydraulics of the multi-region molten salt reactor.
Molten salt reactor
Nuclear Fuel
Nuclear transmutation
Liquid fuel
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The chemistry group within the U.S. Department of Energy Molten Salt Reactor Campaign is developing a model for the molten salt reactor system for assessing the suitability of various used fuel processing schemes. In the long run, the developed model is expected to be a tool for better understanding the interplay between the components of the molten salt reactor system including uranium resources, the molten salt reactor, the used fuel processor (e.g., reprocessing plant), and waste management. In this regard, the report proposes a theoretical framework for integrating the various components of the molten salt reactor system. Rather than being buried in implementation details for seemingly heterogeneous components of the reactor system asking for various modeling techniques, this report proposes to approximate and integrate all components with a unified mathematical framework, a discrete-time linear system. An abstracted molten salt reactor system is given as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical framework. A fully developed molten salt reactor system model (based on the proposed framework) is expected to be beneficial for various objectives including the transient and equilibrium analysis of fuel cycle scenarios and the identification of potential technology bottlenecks.
Molten salt reactor
Transient (computer programming)
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Electrochemical methods for the separation of fission products from fission material in molten fluoride salt media have been studied in the context of their application within the framework of the developed Molten Salt Reactor fuel cycle. The separation possibilities of selected actinides (U, Th) and lanthanides (Nd, Eu, Gd) in molten eutectic LiF-NaF-KF at 530°C were evaluated by means of cyclic voltammetry. The applicability of different electrochemical techniques is discussed with reference to the new results from this study, and a basic flow sheet for the Molten Salt Reactor fuel cycle is outlined.
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Molten salt reactor
Reactor design
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Molten salt reactor
Christian ministry
Thorium Fuel Cycle
Technology Development
Nuclear Fuel
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The aim of this paper is to present methods for corrosion mitigation in molten salt environments. The corrosion of structural materials depends directly on the redox potential of the salt. When the redox potential of the salt is higher than the standard potentials of the elements constituting the structural materials, corrosion occurs. If the reverse is true, no corrosion is observed. Herein, a methodology for calculating the theoretical potential of a molten salt is provided and compared with experimental measurements. Three ways to mitigate corrosion by modifying the salt redox potential are proposed: (i) using a soluble/soluble redox system; (ii) using a potentiostatic method; and (iii) using an amphoteric compound such as UCl3, TiCl2, or TiCl3. Immersion tests were conducted under the above conditions to validate the methodology.
Salt solution
Immersion
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Molten salt coolants are being investigated as primary coolants for a fluoride high-temperature reactor and as secondary coolants for high-temperature reactors such as the next-generation nuclear plant. This work provides a review of the thermophysical properties of candidate molten salt coolants for use as a secondary heat transfer medium from a high-temperature reactor to a processing plant. The molten salts LiF-NaF-KF, KF-ZrF4, and KCl-MgCl2 were considered for use in the secondary coolant loop. The thermophysical properties necessary to add the molten salts KF-ZrF4 and KCl-MgCl2 to RELAP5-3D were gathered for potential modeling purposes. The properties of the molten salt LiF-NaF-KF were already available in RELAP5-3D. The effect that the uncertainty in individual properties had on the Nusselt number was evaluated. This uncertainty in the Nusselt number was shown to be nearly independent of the molten salt temperature.
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Interest of fluoride salts have recently revived due to the high temperature application in nuclear reactors. Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) was designed to operate at high temperature in range 700 - 800°C and its fuel is dissolved in a circulating molten fluoride salt mixture. Molten fluoride salts are stable at high temperature, have good heat transfer properties and can dissolve high concentration of actinides and fission product. The aim of this paper was to discuss the physical properties (melting temperature, density and heat capacity) of two systems fluoride salt mixtures i.e; LiF-BeF2 (Flibe) and LiF-NaF-KF (Flinak) in terms of their application as coolant and fuel solvent in MSR. Both of these salts showed almost same physical properties but different applications in MSR. The advantages and the disadvantages of these fluoride salt systems will be discussed in this paper.
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Molten salt reactor
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Electrochemical methods for the separation of fission products from fission material in molten fluoride salt media have been studied in the context of their application within the framework of the developed Molten Salt Reactor fuel cycle. The separation possibilities of selected actinides (U, Th) and lanthanides (Nd, Eu, Gd) in molten eutectic LiF-NaF-KF at 530°C were evaluated by means of cyclic voltammetry. The applicability of different electrochemical techniques is discussed with reference to the new results from this study, and a basic flow sheet for the Molten Salt Reactor fuel cycle is outlined.
Molten salt reactor
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