• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4431-4440
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• 2022

An advanced nuclear reactor based on molten salts including a molten salt reactor and pyroprocessing needs a sensitive monitoring system suitable for operation in harsh environments with limited access. Multi-element detection is challenging with the conventional technologies that are compatible with the in-situ operation; hence laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been investigated as a potential alternative. However, limited precision is a chronic problem with LIBS. We increased the precision of LIBS under high temperature by protecting optics using a gas protective layer and correcting for shotto-shot variance and lens-to-sample distance using a laser-induced acoustic signal. This study investigates cerium as a surrogate for uranium and corrosion products for simulating corrosive environments in LiCl-KCl. While the un-corrected limit of detection (LOD) range is 425-513 ppm, the acoustic-corrected LOD range is 360-397 ppm. The typical cerium concentrations in pyroprocessing are about two orders of magnitude higher than the LOD found in this study. A LIBS monitoring system that adopts these methods could have a significant impact on the ability to monitor and provide early detection of the transient behavior of salt composition in advanced molten salt-based nuclear reactors.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.223-230
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• 1998

The separator for a molten carbonate fuel cell(MCFC) is mode of stainless steel and known to the suscepibility to corrosion due to environments of high temperature molten carbonte electrolyte. Considering the sensitization of stainless steel in the temperature range of 425~$815^{\circ}C$, the separator is expected to be sensitized so that the interganular corrosion (IGC) occurs during the cell operation at about $650^{\circ}C$. In this study, EPR(electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation) technique was examined by relating some elements(mainly C and Cr) to the degree of sensitization of austenitic stainless steels in the molten carbonate salt at $650^{\circ}C$and the possible mechanism of intergranular corrosion was analyzed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.415-419
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• 2004

The electrode potential characteristics of a YSZ based membrane metal oxide electrode have been studied in molten LiCL at $700^{\circ}C$ by the potentiometric method. The electrode exhibited a good potential response to log[$O^2$] and data reproducibility. The calibration plot (potential vs. log[$O^2$] was found to be linear, obeying the Nernst equation. The electrode potential showed a good reversibility corresponding to increase/decrease of the oxide ion present in the molten LiCl. The physical and chemical durability appeared to be sound after several repeated uses, resulting in reproducible results. However, "the proposed electrode" failed when metallic Li was present in the melt.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.762-769
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• 2024

The TMSR-SF0 simulator is an integral effect thermal-hydraulic experimental system for the development of thorium molten salt reactor (TMSR) program in China. The simulator has two heat transport loops with liquid FLiNaK. In literature, the 95% level confidence uncertainties of the thermophysical properties of FLiNaK are recommended, and the uncertainties of density, heat capacity, thermal conductivity and viscosity are ±2%, ±10, ±10% and ±10% respectively. In order to investigate the effects of thermophysical properties uncertainties on the molten salt heat transport system, the uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of the heat transfer characteristics of the simulator system are carried out on a RELAP5 model. The uncertainties of thermophysical properties are incorporated in simulation model and the Monte Carlo sampling method is used to propagate the input uncertainties through the model. The simulation results indicate that the uncertainty propagated to core outlet temperature is about ±10 ℃ with a confidence level of 95% in a steady-state operation condition. The result should be noted in the design, operation and code validation of molten salt reactor. In addition, more experimental data is necessary for quantifying the uncertainty of thermophysical properties of molten salts.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.1184-1189
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• 2018

Pyroprocessing uses various molten salts during electrochemical unit processes. Reaction products after the electrochemical processes must contain a significant amount of residual salts to be separated. Vacuum distillation is a common method to separate the residual salts; however, its high operation temperature may cause side reactions. In this study, a simple rotation technique using centrifugal force was suggested to separate the residual salts from the reaction products at relatively low temperature compared to the distillation technique. When a reaction product container with porous wall rotates inside a vessel heated above the melting point of the residual salt, the residual salt in the liquid phase is separated through centrifugal force. It was shown that the $LiNO_3-Al_2O_3$ mixture can be separated by this technique to leave solid $Al_2O_3$ inside the container, with a separation efficiency of 99.4%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.1013-1021
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• 2024

A series of experiments were performed to produce a fuel source for a molten salt reactor (MSR) through pyroprocessing technology. A simulated LiCl-KCl-UCl₃-NdCl₃ salt system was prepared, and the U element was fully recovered using a liquid cadmium cathode (LCC) by applying a constant current. As a result, the salt was purified with an UCl₃ concentration lower than 100 ppm. Subsequently, the U/RE ingot was prepared by melting U and RE metals in Y₂O₃ crucible at 1473 K as a surrogate for RE-rich ingot product from pyroprocessing. The produced ingot was sliced and used as a working electrode in LiCl-KCl-LaCl₃ salt. Only RE elements were then anodically dissolved by applying potential at - 1.7 V versus Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The RE-removed ingot product was used to produce UCl₃ via the reaction with NH4Cl in a sealed reactor.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2008

The neutron kinetic analysis methods for the molten-salt reactors are quite different from those for conventional solid-fuel reactors, which do not take into account the flowing-fuel-induced neutronics effects. Therefore, for dynamics and safety analyses of the molten-salt reactor systems, the conventional kinetics codes would not be appropriate to accurately predict its transient behaviors. A point-kinetics with flowing- fuel model has been used to assess the fluid-fuel reactor system safety, but recognized as not to be sufficient to simulate spatial distributions of delayed-neutron precursors and neutron populations during transients for given detail reactor models. In order to meet this requirement, AMBIKIND, a 2-group, 2-dimensional neutron kinetics code suitable for the molten-salt reactor systems was developed. This paper explains the code's theoretical and numerical descriptions and, as a part of its verification, includes some simulation results of MSRE stability experiments. Even though the present reactor model does not include the recirculation effect of the fuel-salt through the reactor system, the AMBIKIN2D code should be able to predict the power and phase shift at various power levels and reactivity insertions with better accuracy.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.1131-1136
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• 2020

Xenon behaves differently in molten salt reactors (MSRs) compared to solid fuel reactors. This behavior needs exploring due to the large reactivity effect of the ¹³⁵Xe isotope, given the current interest in MSR power plant development for commercial deployment. This paper focuses on select topics in xenon transport, reviews relevant past works, and proposes specific research questions to advance the state of the art in each of the focus areas. Specifically, the paper discusses the issue of xenon solubility in MSRs, the behavior of particulates circulating in MSR fuel salt and its influence on the xenon transport, the possibility of ionization of xenon atoms which changes its effective size and thus affects its mass transport, and finally the issue of circulating void fraction and how it is measured. This work presents specific recommendations for MSR designers to research the limits of Henry's law validity, circulating particulate scrubbers, validity of mass transport coefficients in high radiation fields, and the effects of pump speed on circulating void fraction.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.42 no.10 s.281
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• pp.672-677
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• 2005

In this study we prepared the Sr-ferrite powders and magnet by a molten salt method using the (NaCl+KCl) salt mixture. Starting materials of $Fe_{2}$$O_{3}$ and Sr$Co_{3}$ were mixed as the molar ratio of 5.70:1, and 0.08 mol$ \% $ $Al_{2}$$O_{3}$, 0.10 mo1$ \% $ Si$O_{2}$ and 0.12 mo1$ \% $ CaO were added as additives. Sr-ferrite powders synthesized at the reaction temperatures of 800$\∼$1200$ ^{\circ}C $ showed the typical M-type hexagonal ferrite phase, and hexagonal plate-like morphology with uniform distribution of 1$\∼$3 $\mu$m particle size. The bulk density of the sintered Sr-ferrite magnet prepared with powders by the molten salt method showed the maximum density of 4.82 g/$cm^{3}$ at the sintering temperature of 1200$^{\circ}C $. The maxima of remanent flux density (Br, 45 emu/g) and coercive force (iHc, 3.75 kOe) occurred at the sintering temperatures of 1150$ ^{\circ}C$ and 1200$^{\circ}C $.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.8
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• pp.1617-1628
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• 2017

In the passive residual heat removal system of a molten salt reactor, one of the residual heat removal methods is to use the thimble-type heat transfer elements of the drain salt tank to remove the residual heat of fuel salts. An experimental loop is designed and built with a single heat transfer element to analyze the heat transfer and flow characteristics. In this research, the influence of the size of a three-layer thimble-type heat transfer element on the heat transfer rate is analyzed. Two methods are used to obtain the heat transfer rate, and a difference of results between methods is approximately 5%. The gas gap width between the thimble and the bayonet has a large effect on the heat transfer rate. As the gas gap width increases from 1.0 mm to 11.0 mm, the heat transfer rate decreases from 5.2 kW to 1.6 kW. In addition, a natural circulation startup process is described in this paper. Finally, flashing natural circulation instability has been observed in this thimble-type heat transfer element.