Abstract
With the resurgence of interest in molten salt reactors, there is a need for new experiments and modeling capabilities to characterize the unique phenomena present in this fluid fuel system. A Versatile Experimental Salt Irradiation Loop (VESIL) is currently under investigation at Idaho National Laboratory to be placed in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). One of the key phenomena this proposed experiment plans to elucidate is fission product speciation in the fuel-salt and the subsequent effects this has on the fuel-salt properties, source term generation, and corrosion control. Specifically, noble gases (Xe & Kr) will bubble out to a plenum or off-gas system, and noble metals (Mo, Tc, Te, etc.) will precipitate and deposit in specific zones in the loop. This work extends the mass transfer and species interaction models in CTF (Coolant-Boiling in Rod Arrays—Two Fluids) and applies these models to give a preliminary estimation of fission product behavior in the proposed VESIL design. A noble metal–helium bubble mass transfer model is coupled with the thermal-hydraulic results from CTF to determine the effectiveness of this insoluble fission product (IFP) extraction method for VESIL. Amounts of IFP species extracted to the off-gas system and species distributions in VESIL after a 60-day ATR cycle are reported.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 309-317 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Engineering |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2021 |
Funding
This material is based upon work supported under an Integrated University Program Graduate Fellowship. This manuscript was co-authored by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Governement retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. The research work was partially funded through Idaho National Laboratory (INL)\u2019s LDRD program, project number 18P38-004FP, entitled \u201CFeasibility Assessment of a Molten Salt Loop in the ATR\u201D, under the DOE Idaho Operations Office.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Idaho Operations Office, U.S. Department of Energy | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Battelle Energy Alliance | DE-AC07-05ID14517 |
| Idaho National Laboratory | 18P38-004FP |
| Idaho National Laboratory |
Keywords
- helium bubbling
- mass transfer
- molten salt reactor
- noble gas
- noble metal
- species transport