4 ms·
As a neat coincidence, molten salt fueled fission reactors also need enriched Lithium. However, those need Lithium 7 which would essentially be the depleted Lit
by MertsA 8y ago
As a neat coincidence, molten salt fueled fission reactors also need enriched Lithium. However, those need Lithium 7 which would essentially be the depleted Lithium from enriching Lithium 6.
- pfdietz 8y agoNo, MSRs do not necessarily need enriched lithium. For example, Moltex's fast MSR uses no lithium whatsoever. The (barren) coolant salt is zirconium sodium potassium fluoride, and the fuel salt (in tubes, where it does not mix with the coolant) is a mixture of sodium, zirconium, uranium, and plutonium chlorides, as well as fission products. The zirconium does not have to be "nuclear grade", since the design not only tolerates hafnium (a strong thermal neutron absorber) in the coolant salt, it depends on it to shield the reactor structure from thermal neutron degradation. Lithium-7 will still lead to production of some tritium. Any MSR using lithium is going to need a tritium separation and capture system.
- baking 8y agoSPARC's models show a net positive for tritium breeding of 1.08 (tritium produced/tritium consumed) but I'm pretty sure this relies on enriched lithium, although I can't find where they specify the level of enrichment for that model. I'm sure it was a design constraint though.
- MertsA 8y agoMSRs that use lithium in the fuel salt do in fact need enriched lithium. The problem is that lithium 6 has a much larger neutron absorption cross section than lithium 7. It's on the order of 10,000x greater IIRC.