Design and neutronic analysis of the intermediate heat exchanger of a fast-spectrum molten salt reactor

Abstract

Various research groups and private interprises are pursuing the design of a Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) as one of the Generation-IV concepts. In the current work a fast neutron MSR using chloride fuel is analyzed, specially analyzing the power production and neutron flux level in the Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHX). The neutronic analysis in this work is based on a chloride-fuel MSR with 600 MW thermal power. The core power density was set to 100 MW m −3 with a core H/D [[EQUATION]] 1.0 amd four Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHX). This leads to a power of 150 MW per IHX; this power is also comparable to the IHX proposed in the SAMOFAR framework. In this work, a preliminary design of a 150 MW helical-coil IHX for a chloride-fueled MSR is prepared and the fission rate, capture rate, and inelastic scatter rate are evaluated.

Keywords

• Molten salt reactor
• Intermediate heat exchanger
• Neutronic analysis