IPAC2011 - List of Authors (Bowman, C.)

Paper

Title

Page

Accelerator-driven Subcritical Molten-salt-fueled Reactors

2868

R.P. Johnson
Muons, Inc, Batavia, USA
C. Bowman
ADNA, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA

Reactors built using solid fissile materials sealed in fuel rods have an inherent safety problem in that volatile radioactive materials in the rods are accumulated and can be released in dangerous amounts. Accelerator parameters for subcritical reactors that have been considered in recent studies have primarily been based on using solid nuclear fuel much like that used in all operating critical reactors as well as the thorium-burning accelerator-driven energy amplifier proposed by Rubbia et al. An attractive alternative reactor design that used molten salts was experimentally studied at ORNL in the 1960s, where a critical molten salt reactor was successfully operated using enriched U235 or U233 tetrafluoride fuels. These experiments give confidence that an accelerator-driven subcritical molten salt reactor will work as well or better than conventional reactors, having better efficiency due to their higher operating temperature, having the inherent safety of subcritical operation, and having constant purging of volatile radioactive elements to eliminate their accumulation and potential accidental release in dangerous amounts.

Slides THOAB01 [5.723 MB]

Paper	Title	Page
THOAB01	Accelerator-driven Subcritical Molten-salt-fueled Reactors	2868
	R.P. Johnson Muons, Inc, Batavia, USA C. Bowman ADNA, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
	Reactors built using solid fissile materials sealed in fuel rods have an inherent safety problem in that volatile radioactive materials in the rods are accumulated and can be released in dangerous amounts. Accelerator parameters for subcritical reactors that have been considered in recent studies have primarily been based on using solid nuclear fuel much like that used in all operating critical reactors as well as the thorium-burning accelerator-driven energy amplifier proposed by Rubbia et al. An attractive alternative reactor design that used molten salts was experimentally studied at ORNL in the 1960s, where a critical molten salt reactor was successfully operated using enriched U235 or U233 tetrafluoride fuels. These experiments give confidence that an accelerator-driven subcritical molten salt reactor will work as well or better than conventional reactors, having better efficiency due to their higher operating temperature, having the inherent safety of subcritical operation, and having constant purging of volatile radioactive elements to eliminate their accumulation and potential accidental release in dangerous amounts.
	Slides THOAB01 [5.723 MB]