Fuel strategy for 2 MW SF-TMSR

Conference · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013

OSTI ID:22264159

Zhu, Zhiyong; Lin, Jun; Cao, Changqing; Zhang, Haiqing; Zhu, Tianbao; Li, Xiaoyun ^[1]

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1. Center for Thorium Molten Salt Reactor System, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.2019 Jialuo Road, Jiading District, Shanghai 201800 (China)

China has launched a series of projects for developing high performance nuclear energy systems. The 2 MW solid fuel thorium based molten salt reactor (TMSR-SF) is one of these projects, which uses TRISO fuel elements as the fuel carrier and the FLiBe molten salt (2LiF-BeF{sub 2}) as the coolant. TRISO fuel elements have been well developed in respect to manufacturing, testing experiments inside and outside reactors as well as their successful application in HTGRs. The application of LEU (low enriched uranium) spherical TRISO fuel elements in TMSR-SF can be safely conducted through careful control of temperature and power density. Although the soaking of molten salt into graphite has shown no damage to the graphite material as experienced by ORNL group in the sixties last century, the compatibility of FLiBe salt with graphite covering of the fuel elements should be tested before the application. It is expected that TMSR-SF can be an appropriate test reactor for high performance fuel element development. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22264159
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
BERYLLIUM FLUORIDES
CHINA
ENRICHED URANIUM
FLIBE
FUEL ELEMENTS
GRAPHITE
HTGR TYPE REACTORS
MOLTEN SALT REACTORS
NUCLEAR ENERGY
ORNL
PERFORMANCE
POWER DENSITY
SOLID FUELS
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
TEST REACTORS