Fission Product Measurement and Off-Gas Scrubbing for Molten Salt Reactors
The Advanced Reactor Technology (ART) program within the US Department of Energy is developing understanding and technology to help facilitate molten salt reactor commercialization.[1] The off-gas system for MSRs plays an important role in fission product confinement. The strategy used in MSRs is different from that used in pressurized water reactors, where the off-gas mainly mitigates severe accident conditions.[2] Although the details vary depending on the reactor type, the off-gas system of MSRs must reduce radiological emissions to the environment to levels comparable with those mandated for non-MSRs. Systems with molten fuel salt will accumulate material in the headspace: volatile fission products, entrained salt particles, graphite fines, and material that has low solubility in the salt. Operators of thermal fluoride salt reactors with encapsulated fuel will also be concerned about tritium generation and migration. The fission and activation products include noble gases, their daughters, tritium, and aerosolized salt constituents. Their concentrations will generally increase with reactor burnup, depending on the various strategies used for mitigation. Tritium capture and removal has been reviewed by several groups.[3]
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1638076
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-149521
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 121, Issue 1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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