• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2315-2324
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• 2023

Space nuclear reactors are becoming popular in deep space exploration owing to their advantages of high-power density and stability. Following the fourth-generation nuclear reactor technology, a conceptual design of the dual drum-controlled space molten salt reactor (D²-SMSR) is proposed. The reactor concept uses molten salt as fuel and heat pipes for cooling. A new reactivity control strategy that combines control drums and safety drums was adopted. Critical physical characteristics such as neutron energy spectrum, neutron flux distribution, power distribution and burnup depth were calculated. Flow and heat transfer characteristics such as natural convection, velocity and temperature distribution of the D²-SMSR under low gravity conditions were analyzed. The reactivity control effect of the dual-drums strategy was evaluated. Results showed that the D²-SMSR with a fast spectrum could operate for 10 years at the full power of 40 kWth. The D²-SMSR has a high heat transfer coefficient between molten salt and heat pipe, which means that the core has a good heat-exchange performance. The new reactivity control strategy can achieve shutdown with one safety drum or three control drums, ensuring high-security standards. The present study can provide a theoretical reference for the design of space nuclear reactors.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.603-608
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• 2015

Alumina powder have been expanded its application in industry and required to control its morphology such as powder size and aspect ratio of single particle. It can be synthesized by molten - salt method which is possible to obtain various shapes of ceramic particles by controlling the growth direction because each crystal face has different growth rate. In this study, various combinations of salts such as NaCl, $Na_2SO_4$, $Na_3PO_4$ and their mixture were used for control the growth of plate like alumina particle from the initial stage of synthesis because salt having different ionic strength can control the growth direction of ceramic particle under its melting condition around $800{\sim}900^{\circ}C$, and growth behavior of plate-like alumina particle with different reaction conditions such as temperature and concentration on the crystal size and shape was studied.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.646-651
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• 2008

The electrolytic reduction of spent oxide fuel involves the liberation of oxygen in a molten LiCl electrolyte, which results in a chemically aggressive environment that is too corrosive for typical structural materials. It is essential to choose the optimum material for the process equipment handling molten salt. IN713LC is one of the candidate materials proposed for application in electrolytic reduction process. In this study, yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) top coat was applied to a surface of IN713LC with an aluminized metallic bond coat by an optimized plasma spray process, and were investigated the corrosion behavior at $675^{\circ}C$ for 216 hours in the molten salt $LiCl-Li_2O$ under an oxidizing atmosphere. The as-coated and tested specimens were examined by OM, SEM/EDS and XRD, respectively. The bare superalloy reveals obvious weight loss, and the corrosion layer formed on the surface of the bare superalloy was spalled due to the rapid scale growth and thermal stress. The top coatings showed a much better hot-corrosion resistance in the presence of $LiCl-Li_2O$ molten salt when compared to those of the uncoated superalloy and the aluminized bond coatings. These coatings have been found to be beneficial for increasing to the hot-corrosion resistance of the structural materials for handling high temperature lithium molten salts.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.767-772
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• 2012

In support of optimizing electrorefining technology for treating spent nuclear fuel, lithium drawdown has been investigated for separating actinides from molten salt electrolyte. Drawdown reaction selectivity is a major issue that requires investigation, since the goal is to remove actinides while leaving the fission products and other components in the salt. A series of lithium drawdown tests with surrogate fission product chlorides was run to obtain selectivity data with non-radioactive salts, develop a predictive model, and draw conclusions about the viability of using this process with actinide-loaded salt. Results of tests with CsCl, $LaCl_3$, $CeCl_3$, and $NdCl_3$ are reported here. Equilibrium was typically achieved in less than 10 hours of contact between lithium metal and molten salt under well-stirred conditions. Maintaining low oxygen and water impurity concentrations (<10 ppm) in the atmosphere was observed to be critical to minimize side reactions and maintain stable salt compositions. An equilibrium model has been formulated and fit to the experimental data. Good fits to the data were achieved. Based on analysis and results obtained to date, it is concluded that clean separation between minor actinides and lanthanides will be difficult to achieve using lithium drawdown.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.793-802
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• 2024

In the framework of the European project SAMOSAFER, this numerical study focuses on some thermal aspects of the Emergency Draining Tank (EDT) located underneath the core of a Molten Salt Reactor. In case of an emergency, this tank passively receives the liquid fuel salt and is designed to ensure a subcritical state. An important requirement is that the fuel does not overheat to maintain the EDT Hastelloy container integrity. The present EDT is based upon a group of hexagonal cooling assemblies arranged in a hexagonal grid and cooled down thanks to conduction through the inert salt layer up to an air flow in charge of removing the heat. This numerical thermal study relies on a conjugated heat transfer analysis coupling a Finite Element solid thermal code (SYRTHES) and two instances of a Finite Volume CFD codes (Code_Saturne). Calculations on an initial design suggest that a simple center airpipe flow is likely to not sufficiently cool the device. Alternative solutions have been evaluated. Introduction of fins to enhance the heat transfer do not bring a noticeable improvement regarding maximum temperature reached. However, a solution in which the central pipe air flow is replaced by several cooling channels located closer to the fuel is investigated and suggests a better cooling.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.319-329
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• 2004

The electrorefining experiments with an anode composed of U, Y, Gd, Nd and Ce (or U, Gd, Dy and Ce) were carried out in the KC1-LiCl eutectic melt at $500^{\circ}C$, Uranium was the major component in the cathode deposits at the high initial uranium concentration, and the separation factors of the uranium with respect to the rare earths (REs) were calculated according to the applied voltage and the uranium concentration in the molten salt. The current efficiency was inversely in proportion to the applied voltage in the range of 1.0 V to 1, 9 V (vs. STS304L). The dependency of the applied voltage on the current efficiency as well as the deposition rate was discussed in terms of the microstructural feature and crystal structure of the deposit.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1452-1461
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• 2020

A triple bubbler sensor was tested in LiCl-KCl molten salt from 450 to 525 ℃ in a transparent furnace to validate thermal-expansion corrections and provide additional molten salt data sets for calibration and validation of the sensor. In addition to these tests, a model was identified and further developed to accurately determine the density, surface tension, and depth from the measured bubble pressures. A unique feature of the model is that calibration constants can be estimated using independent depth measurements, which allow calibration and validation of the sensor in an electrorefiner where the salt density and surface tension are largely unknown. This model and approach were tested using the current and previous triple bubbler data sets, and results indicate that accuracies are as high as 0.03%, 4.6%, and 0.15% for density, surface tension, and depth, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.579-585
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• 1987

The effects of flux KCl and dopant Nb2O5 on the PTCR characteristics of BaTiO3 prepared by molten salt synthesis method have been investigated. As the amount of dopant Nb2O5 is over the solubility limit in BaTiO3, the room-temperature resistivity increases, and the PTCR effect and the grain size decrease. The variation of the amount of flux KCl slightly influences on the room-temperature resistivity, PTCR effect and grain size in Nb2O5 doped BaTiO3, but BaTiO3 ceramics prepared by the method of molten salt synthesis show larger PTCR effect than those of conventional calcining of mixed oxides.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.13-18
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• 1985

Semiconductive $Ba_{0.9}Sr_{0.1}TiO_3$ was prepared by both the Calcining of mixed Oxides (C. M. O) and the Molten Salt Synthesis(M.S.S) methods to investigate the PTCR effects. In the Molten Salt Synthesis method the temperature of calcination for Synthesis of $BaTiO_3$ could be lowered from 110$0^{\circ}C$ to 80$0^{\circ}C$. The M.S.S Specimens had smaller grain size and more homogeneous size distribution at the same sintering temperature as compared with the C. M. O specimens. The M. S. S. specimens showed greater PTCR effects and current variations in the time vs. current charac-teristics than those of C. M. O Specimens.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.215-219
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• 2003

The technology to fix a molten LiCl waste, which would be generated from the process to convert spent fuel to metal, into zeolite and then make a final waste form is doing developed. The XRD results of salt-loaded zeolites with different mixing ratios showed that all zeolites transformed from zeolite A type into Li-A type, or also Sodalite type as a minor phase for some conditions. The optimum LiCl-to-zeolite ratio to bring a minimum free salt was 1.0 when the molten LiCl waste contained Cs and Sr.