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Recent Advances in Materials for Molten Salt Nuclear Reactor Technology

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 April 2024 | Viewed by 2738

Special Issue Editors

Radiation Science and Technology Department, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft, The Netherlands
Interests: nuclear materials chemistry; experimental and computational thermodynamics; molten salts; thermochemical and thermophysical properties; structure-property relationships
Department of Chemical Engineering, Centre for Research in Computational Thermochemistry, Ecole Polytechnique Montreal, C.P. Succursale “Downtown”, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3A7, Canada
Interests: multiscale thermodynamics applied to material science; atomistic simulations of liquid; solid and amorphous solutions; physico-chemical properties of melts at high temperature; molten salts/electrolytes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Molten salts are receiving increasing attention worldwide as key materials for sustainable and low-carbon energy technologies in relation with their appealing thermochemical and thermophysical properties. Areas of technological application include, for instance, thermal energy storage and concentrated solar power systems, nuclear fission and fusion reactors, the electrochemical recycling of spent nuclear fuel, electrolytes for fuel cells and molten metal batteries, etc. In particular, the interest in nuclear molten salt reactor (MSR) technology, where molten salts are used both for the nuclear fuel and coolant materials, is growing very rapidly.

The development of the MSR technology towards commercialization requires a thorough safety analysis of all components of the reactor during operation and accident conditions, especially of the molten salt fuel, coolant, and structural materials that are subject to extreme conditions (e.g., high temperatures, irradiation, and corrosive environment) during reactor operation, as well as their interaction.

We invite investigators to contribute original research or review articles reporting recent advances in the materials developed for MSR designs, including fuel and coolant salt synthesis, thermochemical and thermophysical properties, phase equilibria, thermodynamic modelling assessments, modelling and simulation of transport properties (e.g., density, viscosity, thermal conductivity), performance of structural materials with respect to corrosion at high temperature and radiation damage, unraveling of the degradation processes etc. This Special Issue aims especially at highlighting the relationships between structure and properties in the aforementioned research areas. Papers including modelling, simulation and experimental studies are all welcome.

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Dr. Anna Smith
Dr. Aimen Gheribi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • molten salt reactor
  • molten salts
  • structural materials
  • corrosion
  • radiation damage
  • CALPHAD
  • molecular dynamics
  • DFT

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 6105 KiB  
Article
Corrosion Mitigation in Molten Salt Environments
by Sylvie Delpech, Charly Carrière, Alexandre Chmakoff, Laure Martinelli, Davide Rodrigues and Céline Cannes
Materials 2024, 17(3), 581; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17030581 - 25 Jan 2024
Viewed by 726
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to present methods for corrosion mitigation in molten salt environments. The corrosion of structural materials depends directly on the redox potential of the salt. When the redox potential of the salt is higher than the standard potentials [...] Read more.
The aim of this paper is to present methods for corrosion mitigation in molten salt environments. The corrosion of structural materials depends directly on the redox potential of the salt. When the redox potential of the salt is higher than the standard potentials of the elements constituting the structural materials, corrosion occurs. If the reverse is true, no corrosion is observed. Herein, a methodology for calculating the theoretical potential of a molten salt is provided and compared with experimental measurements. Three ways to mitigate corrosion by modifying the salt redox potential are proposed: (i) using a soluble/soluble redox system; (ii) using a potentiostatic method; and (iii) using an amphoteric compound such as UCl3, TiCl2, or TiCl3. Immersion tests were conducted under the above conditions to validate the methodology. Full article
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10 pages, 1344 KiB  
Article
Applications of Thermochemical Modeling in Molten Salt Reactors
by Theodore M. Besmann, Juliano Schorne-Pinto, Mina Aziziha, Amir M. Mofrad, Ronald E. Booth, Jacob A. Yingling, Jorge Paz Soldan Palma, Clara M. Dixon, Jack A. Wilson and Donny Hartanto
Materials 2024, 17(2), 495; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17020495 - 20 Jan 2024
Viewed by 613
Abstract
The extensively evaluated and consistent thermodynamic database, the Molten Salt Thermal Properties Database—Thermochemical (MSTDB-TC), was used along with additional thermodynamic values from other sources as examples of ways to examine molten salt reactor (MSR) fuel behavior. Relative stability with respect to halide potential [...] Read more.
The extensively evaluated and consistent thermodynamic database, the Molten Salt Thermal Properties Database—Thermochemical (MSTDB-TC), was used along with additional thermodynamic values from other sources as examples of ways to examine molten salt reactor (MSR) fuel behavior. Relative stability with respect to halide potential and temperature for likely fuel and fission product components were mapped in Ellingham diagrams for the chloride and fluoride systems. The Ellingham diagrams provide a rich, visual means for identifying halide-forming components in proposed fuel/solvent salt systems. Thermochemical models and values from MSTDB-TC and ancillary sources were used in global equilibrium calculations to provide compositions for a close analysis of the behavior of a possible Molten Chloride Salt Fast Reactor and a Molten Salt Reactor Experiment-type system at high burnup (100 GWd/t). The results illustrated the oxidative nature of burnup in MSRs and provided information about redox behavior and possible control. Full article
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14 pages, 17131 KiB  
Article
Corrosion Behavior of Incoloy®800H, Hastelloy®G35® and 316L Stainless Steel in the Molten Eutectic Fluoride Mixture FLiNaK and Its Vapors
by Ambati Ramu, Viliam Pavlik, Veronika Sillikova and Miroslav Boca
Materials 2023, 16(7), 2679; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16072679 - 28 Mar 2023
Viewed by 853
Abstract
This paper discusses the findings of a corrosion experiment which investigates a transition area which is between the lower area and upper area of the sample. In this experiment, the lower half of the sample surface is exposed to molten salt and the [...] Read more.
This paper discusses the findings of a corrosion experiment which investigates a transition area which is between the lower area and upper area of the sample. In this experiment, the lower half of the sample surface is exposed to molten salt and the upper half of the sample surface is exposed to the vapors generated by molten FLiNak salt. Incoloy®800H and Hastelloy®G35® alloys and 316L stainless steel were selected for the corrosion experiment on the basis of their Cr content. The experiment was conducted at 600 °C for a period of 100 h. The results of the experiment show that, in the transition area, no abrupt change in corrosion mechanism takes place; the experiments also give us information on how the degree of degradation varies across the three areas of the samples. The experiment also showed two distinct corrosion mechanisms operating in the test samples: intergranular corrosion in the SS316L stainless steel test sample and continuous corrosion in Hastelloy®G35®. The results also show a progressive reduction in the concentrations of F, K and Na in the upper areas compared to the lower areas for Hastelloy©G35®. Cr is shown to have a critical role in the corrosion process, even when the sample surface is not in direct contact with the molten salt and is only in contact with the vapors generated by the molten salt. Full article
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