Idaho National Laboratory Cracks the Code on Molten Salt Fuel Production
Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) successfully demonstrated an efficient way to produce fuel for the world’s first fast-spectrum, salt-fueled reactor test. The demonstrated process will help expedite the production of fuel needed to turn on the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE), allowing researchers to advance an unexplored class of reactors.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, In 2020, INL researchers began designing a fuel salt synthesis line, which is the process used to create molten chloride fuel salt.
The team needed to make 18 kilograms of fuel salt at a time while converting 90% of uranium metal feedstock into uranium chloride fuel salt – an amount that had never been reached before.
At first, the team was only able to convert up to 80% of uranium metal and produce 10 kilograms of fuel salt per batch. They hit a turning point last summer after developing a new step to improve uranium utilization, resulting in the conversion of 95% of uranium metal and the production of 18 kilograms of fuel salt. However, it took roughly 200 hours, which is not a sustainable production rate.
The team brought in other experts from INL, Southern Company, and TerraPower to help design a series of experiments aimed at reducing the batch time. Now they can sustainably produce 18 kilograms of fuel salt in 8 hours and will soon have the time down to 5 hours.
