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INL makes first fuel for Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment
Idaho National Laboratory has announced the creation of the first batch of enriched uranium chloride fuel salt for the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE). INL said that its fuel production team delivered the first fuel salt batch at the end of September, and it intends to produce four additional batches by March 2026. MCRE will require a total of 72–75 batches of fuel salt for the reactor to go critical.
Robert M. Zubrin
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 9 | Number 1 | January 1986 | Pages 97-100
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24705
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The possibility of using small initial charges of tritium and 3He to boost a deuterium field-reversed configuration (FRC) up to temperatures at which deuterium-deuterium (D-D) ignition can take place is examined. A computer program is used to track the rates of production, reaction, and leakage of the FRC plasma's isotopic constituents as the burn progresses and the FRC's temperature, density, and volume vary. On the basis of these studies and current scaling laws, a highly attractive advanced fuel FRC reactor is outlined. It is cylindrical, 12 m long, and 3.2 m in coil outer radius, and produces 1568 MW(electric), giving it an effective core power/volume ratio as great as a pressurized water reactor. No lithium blanket is required, as the tritium needed for startup can be bred by the D-D reactions themselves.