Molten salt systems continue to be of interest for a variety of applications, including energy generation, storage, and conversion through solar and reactor systems, as well as materials processing. Molten salts systems offer the benefit of high heat transfer efficiency and the ability to operate at atmospheric pressure while at elevated temperatures. Within molten salt reactors, a molten salt can serve several functions, including heat transfer fluid, reactor coolant, and solvent for high concentrations of dissolved fuel. Considering the many benefits molten salt systems offer, there are several challenges toward building a fundamental understanding of these systems. This includes corrosion products (of interest to all applications) and nuclear fuel or fission products (primarily of interest to reactors and fuel cycle). Molten salt systems are extremely harsh environments and the ability to monitor, and therefore, control materials corrosion is crucial to maintaining safe, long-lived operating conditions. Optical spectroscopy provides powerful tools needed to characterize, monitor, and control the chemical behavior of corrosion products, fuel species, and fission products within molten salt systems. Some uranium species, for example, are known to react with and corrode reactor containment materials. Several of these species have a uniquely identifiable optical fingerprints that can be identified and controlled using spectroscopic monitoring tools. Small scale spectroscopic systems allow for rapid, cost-effective, and safe experimentation of target uranium species in a variety of molten salt systems, including chloride salts and in the presence of corrosion products.

Small-scale spectroscopic monitoring of uranium species for molten salt reactor conditions

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.