Transatomic Power has published a white paper detailing their new design for a molten salt reactor: http://transatomicpower.com/white_paper ... _Paper.pdf.
They make some interesting design choices, and give their rationale:
They have no beryllium in their salt. This raises its melting point, which makes it harder to keep it from freezing where you don't want it to. However, it eliminates a hazardous material and lets them increase the uranium concentration.
They use zirconium hydride for a moderator, instead of graphite. This lets them avoid awkward plumbing problems (graphite shrinks and swells when irradiated), allows a much smaller core and lower enrichment, and lets them burn spent nuclear fuel.
Their paper did not address the challenge of getting regulatory approval for such a dramatically different reactor.
There are discussions at http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/02/transa ... clear.html and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/blogg ... 0843/posts.
new molten salt reactor design
Re: new molten salt reactor design
Molten Fluoride salts are about the nastiest chemicals in the world. Eat through darned near anything. Maybe this is why after 30 years of talking about it, no one dared to make a demo?
Re: new molten salt reactor design
Two demos have been built, the ARE and the MSRE. No one has made a demo since because of the extreme cost of the NRC regulatory burden. The NRC is JUST NOW beginning to write a set of regulations that isn't explicitly aimed at Light Water Reactors. Some activity may be expected soon.ohiovr wrote:Molten Fluoride salts are about the nastiest chemicals in the world. Eat through darned near anything. Maybe this is why after 30 years of talking about it, no one dared to make a demo?
PS: Molten Fluoride salts are among the most stable chemicals from several standpoints. Unlike sodium they are unreactive to air or water. They are radiologically stable (they won't dissociate like water under neutron flux). There are materials that are quite inert to them.