Daniel Wooten, Manuele Aufiero, Francesco Accardi, Massimiliano Fratoni
Molten salt reactors, those reactors whose coolant or fuel is a molten salt (for example, table salt melts around 1440F), have gained increased national and international attention in the past decade because of their inherent safety, lack of pressurized systems (reduced cost), and high fuel utilization. A handful of molten salt reactors have been built; most notably the MSRE at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1960’s.
Despite the long, uneventful, and largely successful operation of the MSRE, molten salt reactors fell out of political favor and little development has occurred with regards to the technology since. Currently, this group’s focus is on the development of computational methods to bring modern nuclear analysis tools to bear on the investigation of hypothetical molten salt reactors. These tools are used to learn about the likely behavior of such reactors and allow for their neutronic, safety, and economic analysis.