Molten Salt Breeder Reactor Development

For the IMSBR development, aU technologies have been either initiated or are being initiated. In parallel, a conceptual design of a 5-MW h IMSBR is being worked out. To perform technology development for various technologies related to salts, materials, components, and power conversion systems, a Molten Salt Breeder Reactor Development Facility (MSBRDF) has been planned at the new B ARC campus in the southern Indian city of Visakhapatnam. 

MSBRDF Molten salt breeder reactor development facility... 

Rosenthal, M. W., P. N. Haubenreich, and R. B. Briggs, 1972, The Development Status of Molten Salt Breeder Reactors, ORNL-4812, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 

McNess, L.E. Feb 1971. Engineering Development Studies for Molten Salt Breeder Reactor Processing, No. 2, ORNL-TM-3137. 

XXX-3] McNEESE, L.E., et al.. Program Plan for Development of Molten-salt Breeder Reactors, ORNL-5018, Oak Ridge, USA (1974). 

The Molten Salt Breeder Reactor Program Further Developed Molten Salt Technology... 

These billion dollar programmes developed the technology base for use of liquid salts in nuclear systems. Two experimental reactors were built and successfully operated. The aircraft reactor experiment (ARE) was the first MSR. It was a 2.5 MW(th) reactor that was operated in 1954 at a peak temperature of 860°C and used a sodium-zirconium fluoride salt. This was followed in 1965 by the molten salt breeder reactor (MSBR) Experiment, an 8 MW(th) reactor that used a lithium-beryllium fluoride salt and demonstrated most of the key technologies for a power reactor. In addition, test loops with liquid salts were operated for hundreds of thousands of hours, materials of construction were code qualified to 750°C, and a detailed conceptual design of a 1000 MW(e) MSBR was developed. Over 1000 technical reports were produced. 

High-temperatme, low-pressure molten-fluoride-salt reactor coolants developed during the U S. aircraft nuclear propulsion program of the 1950s and the molten salt breeder reactor program of the 1960s. 

ORNL, in W.R. Grimes (Ed.), Chemical Research and Development for the Molten-Salt Breeder Reactor, ORNL/TM-1853, Oak Ridge, TN, USA, 1967. 

With India s well-known program involving heavy water reactors and fast breeders, their early involvement with MSR development is surprising to some. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) was involved with official collaborations with ORNL from 1969 to 1975 on MSBR research. Facilities were built based on salt chemistry and, in particular, studies carried out on PuFj solubility remain of great value today (Venugopal, 2013). The 2013 Conference on Molten Salts in Nuclear Technology (CMSNT) held at BARC detailed India s renewed interest in a wide variety of MSR and FHR concepts (http //moltensaltindia. org/speakers-presentations/). 

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