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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Latest News
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.
John H. Pitts
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 1198-1203
Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor Technology | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A39930
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Cascade, originally conceived as a football-shaped, steel-walled reactor containing a Li2O granule blanket, is now envisaged as a double-cone-shaped reactor containing a two-layered (three-zone) flowing blanket of BeO and LiAlO2 granules. Average blanket exit temperature is 1670 K and gross plant efficiency (net thermal conversion efficiency) using a Brayton cycle is 55%. The reactor has a low-activation SiC-tiled wall. It rotates at 50 rpm, and the granules are transported to the top of the heat exchanger using their peripheral speed; no conveyors or lifts are required. The granules return to the reactor by gravity. After considerable analysis and experimentation, we continue to regard Cascade as a promising reactor concept with the advantages of safety, efficiency, and low activation.