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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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NN Asks: What does it take to build a domestic fuel salt supply chain?
Adam Burak
We need facilities capable of converting uranium and thorium feedstocks into salts, as well as a source of thorium, if we are to build a domestic fuel salt supply chain.
Our current supply chain provides a potential pathway to produce one type of fuel salt. The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used uranium trifluoride/uranium tetrafluoride (UF3/4) as fuel in the late 1960s, and some current developers are following suit. Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) made as part of the enrichment process could be reduced to uranium fluoride salts with a +3 or +4 valence state. However, as oxygen and moisture are critical impurities for molten salt, a facility with the capability to properly handle molten salts would be necessary.
Advances in Thermal Hydraulics (ATH 2022)
Technical Session
Tuesday, June 14, 2022|10:15AM–12:00PM PDT|Manhattan
Session Chair:
Igor A. Bolotnov
Alternate Chair:
Arsen Iskhakov
Session Organizer:
Elia Merzari
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Direct Numerical Simulation of Low and Unitary Prandtl Number Fluids in Reactor Downcomer Geometry
Cheng-Kai Tai (NCSU), Tri Nguyen (Penn State), Arsen S. Iskhakov (NCSU), Elia Merzari (Penn State), Nam Dinh (NCSU), Igor A. Bolotnov (NCSU)
Paper
Direct Numerical Simulation of High Prandtl Number Fluid Flow in the Downcomer of an Advanced Reactor
Tri Nguyen (Penn State), Elia Merzari (Penn State), Cheng-Kai Tai (NCSU), Igor A. Bolotnov (NCSU)
Assessing Engineering Turbulence Models in Buoyant, Non-Unity Prandtl Flow
Ralph Wiser (MIT), Emilio Baglietto (MIT), Cheng-Kai Tai (NCSU), Igor A. Bolotnov (NCSU), Tri Nguyen (Penn State), Elia Merzari (Penn State)
Quantifying Model Error in Diabatic Turbulent Flow
Ralph Wiser (MIT), Emilio Baglietto (MIT)
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