Molten Salt Reactor - Comparison To Ordinary Light Water Reactors

Comparison To Ordinary Light Water Reactors

MSRs can be safer than ordinary light water reactors. MSR can include a freeze plug at the bottom that has to be actively cooled, usually by a small electric fan. If the cooling fails, say because of a power failure, the fan stops, the plug melts, and the fuel drains to a subcritical passively cooled storage facility. Molten salts trap fission products chemically, and react slowly or not at all in air. Also, the fuel salt does not burn in air or water, and are impervious to radiation. The core and primary cooling loop is operated at near atmospheric pressure, and has no steam, so a pressure explosion is impossible. Even in the case of an accident, most radioactive fission products would stay in the salt instead of dispersing into the atmosphere. A molten core is meltdown-proof, so the worst possible accident would be a leak. In this case, the fuel salt can be drained into passively cooled storage, managing the accident. Neutron-producing accelerators have even been proposed for some super-safe subcritical experimental designs, and the initiation of thorium transmutation to 233U can be directly accomplished with what is essentially a medical proton-beam source.

Some types of molten salt reactors are very inexpensive. Since the core and primary coolant loop are low pressure, it can be constructed of thin, relatively inexpensive weldments. So, it can be far less expensive than the massive pressure vessel required by the core of a light water reactor. Also, some form of fluid-fueled thorium breeder could use less fissile material per megawatt than any other reactor. Molten salt reactors can run at extremely high temperatures, yielding high efficiencies to produce electricity. The temperatures of some proposed designs are high enough to produce process heat for hydrogen production or other chemical reactions. Because of this, they have been included in the GEN-IV roadmap for further study.

The MSR also has far better neutron economy and, depending on the design, a harder neutron spectrum than conventional light water reactors. So, it can operate with less reactive fuels. Some designs (such as the MSRE) can operate a single design from all three common nuclear fuels. For example, it can breed from uranium-238, thorium or even burn the transuranic spent nuclear fuel from light water reactors. In contrast, a water-cooled reactor cannot completely consume the plutonium it produces, because the increasing impurities from the fission wastes capture too many neutrons, "poisoning" the reaction.

MSRs scale over a wide range of powers. Reactors as small as several megawatts have been constructed and operated. Theoretical designs up to several gigawatts have been proposed.

Because of their lightweight structures and compact cores, MSRs weigh less per watt (that is, they have a greater "specific power") than other proven reactor designs. So, in small sizes, with long refueling intervals, they are an excellent choice to power vehicles, including ships, aircraft and spacecraft. This was proved by their initial prototype, the aircraft reactor experiment.