Molten Salt Reactors

Abstract

Molten Salt Reactors\n © Thomas J. Dolan, Member, IEEE 2021\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbstract— Nuclear power is advancing\nslowly because of public concerns about nuclear accidents, radioactive waste,\nfuel supply, cost, and nuclear proliferation. The development of molten salt\nreactors could alleviate most of these concerns and prevent water-cooled\nreactor accidents like those at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima.\nThe purpose of this article is to provide information about the potential advantages\nand problems of molten salt reactors. The coolants could be either fluorides\nor chlorides, operated above their melting temperatures, to avoid\nsolidification, and well below their boiling temperatures, to prevent\nevaporation losses. “Fast” reactors use energetic fission neutrons, while\n“thermal” reactors use graphite to slow the neutrons down to thermal energies. We\ndescribe four reactor types: solid fuel thermal, liquid fuel thermal, liquid\nfuel fast, and “stable salt” fast reactors (liquid fuel in tubes). We discuss load\nfollowing, reactor design projects, and development problems. Liquid fuel\nreactors will require a chemical processing plant to adjust fissile fuel\ninventory, fission products, actinides, and corrosivity in a hot, highly-radioactive\nenvironment.