Molten salt reactors Fast breeder reactor

Furthermore, HEEP will consider several reactor concepts including water reactors such as PWR and PHWR for the lower temperature range, the very high temperature reactors (VHTR), fast breeder reactors (FBR) and molten-salt cooled reactors for the high temperature range, and super-critical water reactor (SCWR) capable of output temperatures up to around 625°C for the medium range of temperature. 

It should be noted that there are less common reactor types like the liquid metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBR) and molten salt reactors (MSR) in which fast neutrons are responsible for most of the fission reactions and the coolant can be a liquid metal (e.g., sodium or lead) or the molten salt itself. 

Pressurized- water reactor Boiling- water reactor Liquid-metal fast-breeder reactor Gas-cooled fast-breeder reactor Molten-salt breeder reactor ... 

As it was mentioned, boron carbide containing enriched elemental boron ( B 65 at%) can serve as the control rod material in fast breeder nuclear reactors. Because boron carbide is fabricated by reacting elemental boron with carbon and the elemental boron in turn is produced by electro-winning process, Jain et al. (2011) have carried out studies to explore the viability of a high-temperature molten salt electro-winning process for the large-scale production of °B isotopically enriched elemental boron. It was established that elemental boron powder with a purity of better than 95 wt% could be produced. 

Molten reactor designs have been configured within a wide range of concepts. Similar to gas-cooled reactors (pebble bed, prismatic. He, CO2, etc.) this variety can be a drawback as it can tend to spread effort and support. Early efforts examined both a breeder approach termed the molten salt breeder reactor (MSBR) and a burner approach termed the denatured MSR (DMSR) while currently there is also renewed interest in fast spectrum designs. The following sections attempt to show the varied potential as well as differentiating factors for a variety of MSR designs. 

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/). 

D-plan Dry reprocessing of spent fuel and target/blanket salts including not only molten salt but solid fuel of ordinary reactors such as the LWR, fast breeder reactors (FBR), heavy water reactors (HWR), etc. for producing molten fluoride fuel salt of the FUJI or target/blanket salt of the AMSB ... 

Liquid metals are considered as efficient coolants in some fast neutron breeder reactor concepts due to their excellent thermophysical and neutron properties [36]. As already mentioned, the Generation IV reference liquid metal coolants are sodium, lead, and lead-bismuth eutectic. Some challenging corrosion issues are also studied in the molten salts and supercritical water environments. 

---