3 ms·

I know on boats they use a piece of sacrificial metal (Anodes) that corrodes more readily than what the boat is made of. This prolongs the life of the boat. Ma

I know on boats they use a piece of sacrificial metal (Anodes) that corrodes more readily than what the boat is made of. This prolongs the life of the boat. Maybe they can use something like that in this situation too.

corty 6y ago
no, because you would have to let the molten salt react with the sacrificial metal, introducing a lot of complicated impurities into your salt bath that may influence your reactor in numerous ways.
- 08-15 6y ago
  ...unless the sacrificial material is a component of the salt anyway, like Beryllium. ORNL proposed to have a Beryllium rod in contact with the fuel salt. It isn't needed to prevent corrosion of Hastelloy N in clean fuel salt, but it was intended to scavenge the fission product Tellurium, which was found to otherwise cause corrosion.
petre 6y ago
Doesn't quite work. It's also used in water boilers and most of them corrode after 10 years with the anode in good shape.