ORNL-TM-7207 - the Molten Salt Energy Technologies Web Site

educe the average demand for mined uranium. Other performance improve-
ments (short of break-even breeding) could be achieved by combining the
on-line fuel processing with periodic removal or reenrichment of part of
the active uranium inventory. In all these options, the net consumption
of natural uranium would become a minor factor in the application of
BMSHPs. Some consideration was given to fuel processing concepts that
Would reBIOVe Only part of the SOlklbPe fission products. such prQC@SseS
appear to offer few (if any) advantages over either the unprocessed or
the fuhky plrOCeSsed apprQaCheS,
6,3 Commercialization Considerations
Since the MSW concept was under study and deVelQpmWIt for nearly a0
years, most of the relevant areas of the required technology have received
at least some attention. After the successful operation of the EISRE, a
Pimjitecf amount of design effort was expended on a commercial-size MSBB;
that effort was discontinued in 1993, The technology development work
proceeded in parallel with the design studies up to that time. A small
development effort (without design support) was resumed in I974 and can-
celled again in l976, This WQI-~, despite its limited scope, provided an
engineering-scale demonstration of tritium management in the secondary
salt and significant progress toward the definition of an acceptable
structural alloy for molten-salt service. Work was under way toward dem-
onstration of some of the chemical processing operations when the program
was ended
Aside from the technical progress, the last development activity
produced a comprehensive plan ~ S S the further development of MSRs, which
served as the basis for the proposed DMSR development plan and schedule.
This plan suggests that the commercialization of DMSRs could proceed via
three reactor projects: (a> a moderate-sized (100- to 2BO-PIWe) molten-
salt test reactor that could be authorfzed in 1985 and become operational
in 1995, (2) an intermediate-sized commercial prototype plant authorized
in 1995 and operating in 2005, and (3) a first standard-design DMSR to
operate in 2011. A preliminary estimate for the cost of this programrp
Y