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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.
Y. Higashizono et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 55 | Number 2 | February 2009 | Pages 185-190
Technical Paper | Seventh International Conference on Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A7010
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Based on the results of neutral transport simulation using cylindrical mesh-model, the effect of the plasma edge region was investigated in the GAMMA 10 central-cell. 3-dimensional geometry and neutral sources such as gas puffers, limiters, and neutral beam injection are precisely constructed in the mesh-model of the GAMMA 10 central-cell. From the neutral transport simulation in the case of each neutral source, 1/e decay lengths of H-line intensity (H decay length) along with z-axis were evaluated. It was found that H-line intensity calculated by the simulation of the gas puffer #3(GP#3) in mirror-throat region takes a broader profile than that of central-limiter and gas puffer #7(GP#7) around the central mid-plane region because the plasma density is low in mirror-throat and the neutral particles are given near the vacuum vessel, while the neutral particles in the central-limiter are given near the plasma core. The simulation results also revealed that the H-line intensity drastically decrease in the range with interior components. On the other hand, it was clarified that the H-line intensity in no interior component area takes a little reduction because of a large width in plasma edge region.