Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated new experimental capabilities measuring how uranium-bearing molten salts conduct heat and flow through molten salt reactors (MSRs).
These two properties are essential for designing and modeling MSRs, a leading concept for advanced nuclear reactors. However, experimental data characterizing both properties are scarce.
ORNL's molten salt reactor expertise , combined with its specialized experimental infrastructure and modeling capabilities, make the lab a leading resource for generating this necessary data.
To do so, researchers evaluated several candidate salt mixtures using tools developed at ORNL: a variable gap system and rolling ball viscometer. The variable gap system directly measures thermal conductivity by tracking how heat flows through a sample, while the rolling ball viscometer determines how fast a small ball can move through that sample to measure viscosity.
"Some of the collected data are completely unique and fill gaps necessary to MSR development," said ORNL's Tony Birri. "We're collaborating across the national labs to further expand the Molten Salt Thermal Properties Database , a vital resource for supporting the licensing and optimization of advanced nuclear technologies."
This work was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy Molten Salt Reactor Program. Jacob Yingling and Bill Phillips (Idaho National Laboratory), Bruce McNamara (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), and Amanda Leong and Jinsuo Zhang (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) contributed to this effort.
