The Molten Salt Fast Reactor as Transmutation System

The basic development and design of a molten salt reactor with fast neutron spectrum (Molten Salt Fast Reactor – MSFR) is the target of the EVOL project in FP7. The MSFR offers certain advantages in the view of transmutation compared to solid fuelled reactor types. In the first part, these advantages will be discussed in a comparison with the sodium cooled fast reactor technology and the research challenges will be analyzed. In the second part, cycle studies for the MSFR, based on the EVOL benchmark design, will be given for different configurations – core with U-238 fertile, a fertile free core and a core with Th-232 as fertile material. For all cases, the transmutation potential will be determined and a significant improvement in the transmutation performance for the case with Th as fertile will be demonstrated. The time evolution of different important isotopes will be analyzed. Additionally, the used tool HELIOS 1.10 and the adaptations needed for the simulation of a MSFR will be described.