TerraPower will partner with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to generate NQA-1 qualifiable and traceable thermophysical property data for Beginning of Life (BOL) and simulated End of Life (EOL) ternary fuel salts. ANL has proven expertise in molten salt thermophysical measurement under NQA-1 standards. These results will directly inform reactor and component design, thermal hydraulic modeling, safety margines, and licensing strategies.
Kairos will partner with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to extend measurements of dissolved oxygen and corrosion products in FLiBe to the full range of relevant/significant impurities, as well as incorporating the measurement methods into their quality assurance program/practices. Refinement of analytical methods for species in salt that impact system operation will enable Kairos to continue along the aggressive timeline for near term nuclear demonstration and commercial deployment.
Nano will partner with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to perform an independent evaluation of the heat exchanger design. This will include the development of a computational model of the heat exchanger to help analyze the design and confirm certain attributes that are critical to the reactor operations.
Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is only one of two labs that can test the oxygen content in chloride salts. MS will partner with INL to verify alignment of test results between MS and INL regarding oxygen content of very high-purity chloride salts utilizing oxygen analyzers, identify, capture, and document best practices into a preliminary framework for a standardized test method and down-select appropriate materials and certification specifications for chloride salt reference standard(s).
Antares will partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to perform an independent, technical audit of Antares R1. ORNL’s Reactor Analysis Group will verify design calculations, including core neutronics and thermal hydraulics. This project will yield high confidence that hardware test campaigns predicated on neutronics data are valid, allowing Antares to move through test stages to a fueled demonstration of the system.
To help get ANA’s Project SparkHub off to a quick start, ANA will partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to use the OR-SAGE tool to perform site screening and down select a number of sites that could be amenable to siting nuclear facilities. The sites will also be located in regions where there is strong incentive to build data centers. After the project, ANA will continue work and begin licensing activities to obtain an Early Site Permit on a technology-neutral basis to support development of the site.
Terrestrial Energy will partner with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) using their expertise in thermogravimetric analysis to analyze the IMSR fuel salt. This project will help determine what chemical species are present in the fuel salt vapor as a function of temperature and partial pressure, whether the fuel salt decomposes at elevated temperatures, and the kinetics of fuel salt vaporization. The work will support the optimization of the reactor components in the IMSR Core-unit as well as the overall design.
The goal of this project would be to evaluate performance capabilities of instruments and develop standardized hardware configurations and operating procedures to analyze lithium isotopic ratios to support production of Flibe coolant that is highly enriched in 7Li.
This project seeks to model and experimentally confirm the composition of two known salt systems (LiF-NaF-UF4 and LiF-NaF-ThF4) as the fuel and blanket salt for Flibe’s Lithium Fluoride Low-Enrichment Uranium Reactor (LFLEUR).
The objective of this project is to determine the density of actinidemolten salt solutions using neutron dilatometry.