<story><title>Application submitted for US molten salt research reactor</title><url>https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Application-submitted-for-US-molten-salt-research</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>marcosdumay</author><text>A 1MW research reactor.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, why is it always a fluoride salt? Is it because of the melting point or because of some nuclear property?&lt;p&gt;I imagine there is some very relevant reason, because a less reactive anion (even chlorine) would be much easier to work with.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>PaulHoule</author><text>Fluoride salts are good for fissile uranium + fertile thorium.  If you want to work with a plutonium&amp;#x2F;uranium 238 cycle then chloride salts are a better choice.  Plutonium doesn&amp;#x27;t dissolve very well in fluorides.&lt;p&gt;Molten chloride reactors can have performance characteristics right out of science fiction,  it seems possible for such a reactor to not only breed more fuel but to destroy the long-lived (500 year) fission products such as cesium and strontium.&lt;p&gt;It never gets upvoted on HN when I link it but I&amp;#x27;ve been following MSRs for a while and even spoke at the first thorium energy conference and I&amp;#x27;ve been watching people&amp;#x27;s thoughts about designs evolve and this one&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.moltexenergy.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.moltexenergy.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;is well ahead of the others.</text></comment>
<story><title>Application submitted for US molten salt research reactor</title><url>https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Application-submitted-for-US-molten-salt-research</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>marcosdumay</author><text>A 1MW research reactor.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, why is it always a fluoride salt? Is it because of the melting point or because of some nuclear property?&lt;p&gt;I imagine there is some very relevant reason, because a less reactive anion (even chlorine) would be much easier to work with.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nickpinkston</author><text>Good question - here&amp;#x27;s a paper and quote on this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) was designed to operate at high temperature in range 700 - 800°C and its fuel is dissolved in a circulating molten fluoride salt mixture. Molten fluoride salts are stable at high temperature, have good heat transfer properties and can dissolve high concentration of actinides and fission product.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;aip.scitation.org&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;10.1063&amp;#x2F;1.4972932&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;aip.scitation.org&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;10.1063&amp;#x2F;1.4972932&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>