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My understanding is that there are some very real engineering hurdles to overcome. Molten salts are extremely corrosive and maintenance isn't exactly easy on a
by deelowe 13y ago
My understanding is that there are some very real engineering hurdles to overcome. Molten salts are extremely corrosive and maintenance isn't exactly easy on a nuclear reactor. The theory is sound, but so far, operations costs and materials engineering appear to kill the ROI.
- DennisP 13y agoThere are some engineering challenges but no apparent showstoppers. With the right alloys, the molten salt isn't that corrosive, and Oak Ridge didn't observe much of a problem after four years of operation. They had some concern that the higher neutron flux of a larger reactor could make things worse, but they thought they'd figured out a tweak to the alloy that would prevent any problems. Of course we'll have to try it to be sure. Also, it's not just one reactor type. There's the full-fledged breeder, which has some complex chemical processing, but you can start out with a simple burner design like the DMSR. An outfit in Canada is going that route.