On the Dimensions Required for a Molten Salt Zero Power Reactor Operating on Chloride Salts

Abstract

Molten salt reactors have gained substantial interest in the last years due to their flexibility and their potential for simplified closed fuel cycle operation for massive expansion in low-carbon electricity production, which will be required for a future net-zero society. The importance of a zero-power reactor for the process of developing a new, innovative rector concept, such as that required for the molten salt fast reactor based on iMAGINE technology, which operates directly on spent nuclear fuel, is described here. It is based on historical developments as well as the current demand for experimental results and key factors that are relevant to the success of the next step in the development process of all innovative reactor types. In the systematic modelling and simulation of a zero-power molten salt reactor, the radius and the feedback effects are studied for a eutectic based system, while a heavy metal rich chloride-based system are studied depending on the uranium enrichment accompanied with the effects on neutron flux spectrum and spatial distribution. These results are used to support the relevant decision for the narrowing down of the configurations supported by considerations on cost and proliferation for the follow up 3-D analysis. The results provide for the first time a systematic modelling and simulation approach for a new reactor physics experiment for an advanced technology. The expected core volumes for these configurations have been studied using multi-group and continuous energy Monte-Carlo simulations identifying the 35% enriched systems as the most attractive. This finally leads to the choice of heavy metal rich compositions with 35% enrichment as the reference system for future studies of the next steps in the zero power reactor investigation. An alternative could be the eutectic system in the case the increased core diameter is manageable. The inter-comparison of the different applied codes and approaches available in the SCALE package has delivered a very good agreement between the results, creating trust into the developed and used models and methods.