Chemistry and technology of Molten Salt Reactors – history and perspectives

Molten Salt Reactors represent one of promising future nuclear reactor concept included also in the Generation IV reactors family. This reactor type is distinguished by an extraordinarily close connection between the reactor physics and chemical technology, which is given by the specific features of the chemical form of fuel, representing by molten fluoride salt and circulating through the reactor core and also by the requirements of continuous ‘on-line’ reprocessing of the spent fuel. The history of Molten Salt Reactors reaches the period of fifties and sixties, when the first experimental Molten Salt Reactors were constructed and tested in ORNL (US). Several molten salt techniques dedicated to fresh molten salt fuel processing and spent fuel reprocessing were studied and developed in those days. Today, after nearly thirty years of discontinuance, a renewed interest in the Molten Salt Reactor technology is observed. Current experimental R&D activities in the area of Molten Salt Reactor technology are realized by a relatively small number of research institutions mainly in the EU, Russia and USA. The main effort is directed primarily to the development of separation processes suitable for the molten salt fuel processing and reprocessing technology. The techniques under development are molten salt/liquid metal extraction processes, electrochemical separation processes from the molten salt media, fused salt volatilization techniques and gas extraction from the molten salt medium.