Welcome to Moltres Discussions! about moltres HOT 8 CLOSED

I am interested in having a conversation with anyone that may have worked on a MOOSE model for the Molten Cloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE) being constructed at INL. See INL/RPT-22-68976. Also anyone that may be working on a followup demonstration concept for Fast Reactors using an eutectic mixture of sodium chloride (NaCl) and uranium trichloride (UCl3).

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Hi @nukeman4444. We do have a moltres user currently working on a Moltres model for MCRE. Can I ask why you're interested in that work?

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Is anyone working on a follow-on power demonstration project for this concept. By that I mean one that adds heat exchangers and turbines to the model? This would allow one to check out the feasibility of having one reactor vessel of a given fixed size power a wide range of heat exchange and turbine size by varying the flow rate and enrichment in the fixed size vessel.

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Here is a link to the Elysium reactor concept I mentioned in the message above.
https://www.intelligentliving.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ELYSIUM-TECHNOLOGIES-USA-585x328.jpg
I have been following the nuclear power industry since I graduated in1964. I like this concept as it has a free or maybe even a negative cost if fuel as it can burn up the tonnes of Uranium and Plutonium waste. Since it operates at near atmospheric pressure it avoids all the cost and safety issues involved with our existing high pressure machines. Could your MOOSE/Moltres model be used to verify this is a feasible concept?

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I modeled a preliminary design of the European molten salt fast reactor (MSFR) for my Master's work. You may find it at this link. Another grad student is currently working on a Moltres model for the MCRE, but it is currently a work in progress.

I'm not an expert on policy but I believe some of the obstacles for using spent fuel are establishing safety and licensing processes for commercial fast reactors, reprocessing costs vs cheap uranium, and the federal ban on fuel reprocessing. Sodium fast reactors have had their own technical and policy-related issues in the past decades.

TerraPower, Kairos Power, and Terrestrial Energy are currently the leading nuclear companies regarding plans for demonstration and licensing of MSRs. Other new reactor concepts which are probably closer to deployment are water-cooled small modular reactors, heat-pipe microreactors, and high temp gas-cooled (micro)reactors. You may refer to the DOE's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

Moltres currently uses approximations for the heat exchanger and coolant pump. You'll probably find better models for those parts in other purpose-built MOOSE apps like the SAM systems code. We're currently better equipped to model 2D or 3D neutronics and thermal hydraulics phenomena in the reactor core. This may change since Moltres is under active development.

Creating a Moltres model for the Elysium reactor is definitely feasible. It would need to be done with another neutronics code for generating group constant data that Moltres requires. However, you'll notice that many private companies do not have their exact designs publicly available.

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To smpark7:
I was very impressed by your thesis. Thanks for sending the link. I now have a much better feel of how MOOSE can be applied to practical problems. I have a Masters Degree in Nuclear Engineering that I received in June 1964. Wow, it looks like that is 60 years ago. What is the status of the European MSFR? Are they building a low power demonstration plant? I seems like stretch to go directly with a 1300 MWe machine?

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I appreciate your kind words. The European MSFR is a conceptual design and a result of EU-wide collaboration (universities and research institutes) on MSR development with EU funding. Their focus was on experimental proof of concept and safety assessment of the fast-spectrum MSR concept. Many researchers and grad students involved in the project have formed or joined European MSR startups (e.g., Copenhagen Atomics, Thorizon, Seaborg Technologies). They're aiming for smaller designs which are modular or floating concepts to gain competitive edges over other designs/types.

P.S. I'm editing the title and moving this post to the discussion section

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