Molten Salt Fast Reactors (MSFR) are an innovative nuclear technology that have the potential to incinerate more nuclear fuel than the current fleet of nuclear reactors. They could substantially increase the sustainability of nuclear energy by leveraging more of the fuel which typically use around 1% of the uranium mined for energy production. There is a significant quantity of nuclear materials in above ground storage in the UK, which could, if the technology is successful, offer a secure supply of low carbon energy. Indeed, such a technology could allow us to reduce the amount of nuclear materials stored and increase the proliferation resistance of UK nuclear material by finding a peaceful use for this material.
To develop these reactors there is a significant need for the development of numerical models, to characterise not only the nuclear reactions, but also fluid motion, heat transfer and the chemistry occurring in the reactors. The reactor chemistry is complicated by presence of almost 100 chemical elements dissolved in the molten salt arising from the nuclear reactions. These additional elements can be separated from the molten salt either by evolving as gas bubbles, by plating on to the reactor vessels or by some external processing.
The aim of the project is to look at the impact of the plating noble metals onto both mechanical and thermal materials properties of the reactor vessels and in the longer term to study corrosion and radiation damage. This will require numerical models to assess the how the contents of the reactor changes with time and how it can affect the plating of some of the elements on to vessel surfaces. This will in turn feedback into the structural materials properties, heat transfer and potentially the nuclear reactions.