Reducing the Burden of High Level Radioactive Waste with Transmutation — Proposal of Integral Molten Salt Fast Reactor (IMSFR)

Abstract

The transmutation methods to reduce the burden of high level radioactive waste had been compared to identify the most suitable method for this purpose. The results showed that the molten salt reactor (MSR) was suggested to be an effective transmutation system. Based on this result, a new concept of Integral Molten Salt Fast Reactor (IMSFR) as a highly efficient transmutation system for transuranium elements has been proposed in this study; the system consists of a combination of an MSR fuelled with chloride molten salt fuel and the chloride-based pyrochemical processing subsystem. In this system MSR fuel can be transferred between the reactor core and the pyrochemical processing subsystem without chemical form change.