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Title: A radioactive tracer dilution method to determine the mass of molten salt

Journal Article · · Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

A new technique for molten salt mass determination, termed radioactive tracer dilution, that uses 22Na as a tracer was validated. It has been a challenging problem to determine the mass of molten salt in irregularly shaped containers, where a highly radioactive, high-temperature molten salt was used to process nuclear spent/used fuel during electrochemical recycling (pyro-processing) or for coolant/fuel salt from molten salt reactors. A radioactive source with known activity is dissolved into the salt. After a complete mixture, a small amount of the salt is sampled and measured in terms of its mass and radioactivity. By finding the ratio of the mass to radioactivity, the unknown salt mass in the original container can be precisely determined.

Research Organization:
Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC07-05ID14517
OSTI ID:
1462749
Report Number(s):
INL/JOU-17-42418
Journal Information:
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Journal Name: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (3)

Fuel Conditioning Facility Electrorefiner Process Model journal June 2006
Modeled salt density for nuclear material estimation in the treatment of spent nuclear fuel journal September 2010
Fuel Conditioning Facility Electrorefiner Model Predictions versus Measurements journal July 2008