Fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor

MSR developments in Russia on the Molten Salt Actinide Recycler and Transmuter aim to be used as efficient burners of transuranic waste from spent UOX and MOX LWR fuel without any uranium and thorium support and also with it. Other advanced reactor concepts are being studied, which use the liquid salt technology as a primary coolant for fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactors, and coated particle fuels similar to high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. 

The beginning of molten salt reactor (MSR) research in Korea dates back to 1998. A basic concept of an MSR that bums the DUPlC fuel was first developed in Ajou University. More studies on MSR, including a recent fluoride—salt-cooled high temperature reactor, are under progress in UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) and other institutes. Described below is a summary of the progress so far and future research plans of the MSR research in Korea. 

Bickel, J.E., et al., 2014. Design, Fabrication and Startup Testing in the Compact Integral Effects Test (CIET 1.0) Facility in Support of Fluoride-Salt-Cooled, High-temperature Reactor Technology. University of California, Berkeley. 

FHR Fluoride-salt-cooled high-temperature reactor... 

Wang, G., Li, W., Li, N., Han, S., 2015. Thermal-hydraulic simulation for pebble-bed fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor core. Atomic Energy Science and Technology 49. 

FHRs Fluoride salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor... 

The LS-VHTR uses the same type of coated-particle graphite-matrix fuel that has been successfully used in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors such as the Peach Bottom Reactor, the Fort St. Viain Reactor (FSVR), the Arbeitsgemeinshaft Versuchsreaktor (AVR), and the Thorium High-Temperature Reactor (THTR). At this time, graphite-based fuels have been demonstrated to be compatible with only two coolants helium and fluoride salts. 

Greene, S.R. et al. 2010. Pre-Conceptual Design of a Fluoride Salt Cooled Small Modular Advanced High Temperature Reactor (SmAHTR), ORNL-TM-2010/199. 

The AHTR reactor core consists of coated-particle graphite-matrix fuel cooled with a molten fluoride salt. The fuel is similar to helium-cooled reactor fuel (Fig. 2). The important characteristic of these fuels is that they can operate at very high temperatures with peak temperatures of 4200 C. They are the only practical, demonstrated nuclear fuels capable of producing heat at sufficient temperatures for H2 production. 

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