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Research & Applications

Molten salt test loop at INL means real-time data on sensors and materials

April 3, 2025, 12:02PMNuclear News
Principal investigator Ruchi Gakhar (left), technician Dean Burt (center), and intern Diego Macias, shown loading salt into the loop. (Photo: INL)

The Department of Energy announced March 31 that a new Molten Salt Flow Loop Test Bed at Idaho National Laboratory recently went through its inaugural test run. The closed-loop test system will allow for continuous monitoring and analysis of chloride-based molten salt reactor technology and instruments before the construction of the Southern Company/TerraPower Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment. MCRE—an experimental fast-spectrum molten salt research reactor—will be built at INL’s repurposed Zero Power Physics Reactor, which has been renamed LOTUS (Laboratory for Operation and Testing in the United States).

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