Reactor Design and Feasibility Study: Fused Salt Fast Breeder

Elucidating Ionic Correlations Beyond Simple Charge Alternation in Molten MgCl2–KCl Mixtures

“…Driven by the challenge to find sustainable and safe sources of energy, molten salts have re-emerged as potential coolants in nuclear reactors five decades since the concept was successfully demonstrated. − Because of their minimal vapor pressure − when compared to water, such systems present many advantages including their potential operation near ambient pressure. Chloride-containing molten salts are intriguing and potentially advantageous for certain applications, − including the development of new generation fast-spectrum molten salt reactors, where chloride salts are preferentially used over fluorides because of their higher atomic weight and reduced moderating capacity. , Consequently, mixtures of MgCl 2 with KCl and/or NaCl are considered to be promising media for Pu­(U)­Cl 3 -based fuel salts. , There are engineering models that predict bulk thermodynamic properties of molten salts; , yet, major gaps still exist in our understanding of ionic coordination numbers used as input in these models, intermediate-range order, and molten salt interactions with materials in general. The reason why understanding structure (including intermediate-range order and coordination environments) is important to thermodynamics, has to do with the activity coefficients and chemical/electrochemical potentials of the ions. − Specifically, the expectation is that order on multiple scales will affect Lewis acidities or basicities of the ions due to long-range Coulombic interactions; as an example, whereas MgCl 2 readily dissolves UO 2 , CaCl 2 does not …”

X-ray scattering reveals ion clustering of dilute chromium species in molten chloride medium

“… 1–4 Among different salt formulations, mixtures of potassium chloride (KCl) and magnesium chloride (MgCl 2 ) hold special promise for these technologies, owing to their stability under high-temperature regimes and their exceptional thermal characteristics. 5–9 In addition, chloride salts are abundant and therefore relatively inexpensive. However, they can be very corrosive to metal alloy materials under the extreme, real-world operating conditions (873–1073 K) of CSP and MSR systems.…”

Evaluation of Power Fluidic Pumping Technology for Molten Salt Reactor Applications

“…As an example of a chloride salt MSR, the Fused Salt Fast Breeder reactor concept was developed by a student team from the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology in 1956 [23]. The 700 MWth reactor would be fueled by plutonium with a mixture of sodium and magnesium chloride as a fuel diluent.…”