Nuclear Physics Seminar
"Molten salt: towards the next generation of nuclear energy"
Presented by Dr. Ondrej Chvala, University of Tennessee
Tuesday, March 31, 2015, 11 am
Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510
Hosted by: Jin Huang
Current nuclear powerplants use almost exclusively highly pressurized water as reactor coolant and heat transfer medium. This limits their operation to relatively low temperatures. Molten alkali-halide salts allow low pressure operation at high temperatures, improving thermal efficiency and operational safety. The talk will cover the history of molten salt reactor development, reasons for the renewed interest, and focus on recent developments of molten salt nuclear technologies in the U.S. and abroad.