Potential of thorium molten salt reactorsdetailed calculations and concept evolution with a view to large scale energy production

We then study how to start this interesting reference system with theplutonium from PWR spent fuel. Such a transition appears slow and difficult, since it is very sensitive to the fissile quality of the plutonium used. Deployment scenarios of 232Th/233U MSBR-like systems from the existing French PWRs demonstrate the advantage of an upstream 233U production in other reactors, allowing a direct start of the MSBR-like systems with 233U. This finally leads us to explore alternatives to some MSBR features, for energy production with 232Th/233U fuel from the start. We thus test different options, especially in terms of core neutronics optimization and reprocessing unit adaptation.