Evening Lecture – Molten Salt Reactor

Molten Salt Reactors (MSR) have gained worldwide interest in recent years due their appealing characteristics with respect to safety and resource utilisation. In this reactor type the fuel is a liquid salt containing the fissile and fertile material to maintain the nuclear chain reaction. The liquid salt also serves as the primary coolant, and as confinement of the fission products. The MSR is often called the chemists’ nuclear reactor because of its dynamic fuel management that enables fuel clean-up and adjustment during operation using pyrochemical techniques. But the chemical characteristics of the fuel also make the conditions in which the core internal and vessel of the reactor must operate extreme; corrosive in a hot environment.
This presentation will address the history of the MSR and the current trends and designs, which are very diverse. Thermal systems, fast systems, actinide burners have all been proposed, with a variety of fuel salt compositions, comprising fluoride and chlorides. It will then focus on the fuel chemistry, the key to the safe operation of this type of reactor, and its influence on the performance of the reactor core materials.